//------------------------------// // Ch22 Jingoism // Story: Equestrian Landings // by qwefg //------------------------------// Lockheart I looked over the worn wooden table as the candlelight burned away in the dark room that I was in. With a wave of my hoof, green flames consumed my forelegs in a quick blaze. When the magical conflagration had passed, my black hoofs had now been turned into a set of draconic digits, as I opened the notebook at my side. In each pages that I looked there were a few diagrams… drawings made by a host of gun nuts and enthusiasts that I managed to swipe/buy from. I ran my fingers across a few pieces of scrap metal that I had gathered up across the table With a wave of my jagged horn, more the green flames consumed them before reshaping them into a long rifle barrel. I took a deep nervous and exhausted breath, as my form of spell casting had taken a lot from my emotional magical reserves with the various attempts to finally craft a functioning gun from scratch. It also didn’t help my situation that Iron Claw wasn’t exactly the bastion of love and good cheer like Equestria that I could subtly feed off of, making it that all the much harder for me to replenish my  already very limited magical reserves. There weren’t exactly a lot of friendly griffins around the area, and I was not that good at trying to impersonate and hanging around them for long periods of times. I mean, I could impersonate a griffin, but that burned more of my magic than I liked, making it counterproductive when trying to replenish my magical reserves. The candle light began to flicker as I heard a filly’s voice reply “Excuse me Mister, but why don’t you go back to Equestria? I’m sure you could explain yourself to Miss Celestia that everything was a misunderstanding.” Ignoring the pleading voice at the moment, I grunted as I used my meager magic reserves to craft an ammo belt for the riffle. I would have plenty of rounds to use if things went bad and reloading wouldn’t be that much of an issue. Sure, I wouldn’t have much time to practice with the gun… or figure out how to quickly reload it properly, but that was a question I could deal with later. Off to my right, I could see the faint image of a filly sitting on a small box looking up at me with wide eyes. The same little alicorn filly that I kept seeing in my dreams since I arrived in Equestria. I tried to ignore the odd figment of my imagination as it kept staring at me. But, I knew it wouldn’t stop staring until I answered her, so I (eventually) acquiesce to her silent pleading. “She chased after me.” I briskly replied back “ You know…  my whole Changeling ‘sensing emotions’ thing…that allows me to know what people are feeling all the time...” I huffed in annoyance “ Well, it told me that Celestia was filled with fear, anger, frustration, and all of it was focused straight on me. Quite frankly I didn’t want to find what she’d do to me if… no once she got near me.” I shivered at the memory of when my failed attempt at casting a spell to see or help remind someone of their own past backfired on me. And Celestia, who shouldn’t have been there in the first place, who just had to be there at that exact moment of when I had my guard down, just decided to peek in my mind revealing all the truth about me. She knew in that moment, that I lied about everything, about who I was, and most importantly, what I was. She then even pursued me herself all the way to the Everfree Forest to deal with me, for once and for all. I tried my best to evade her back in Canterlot, as I did my best to dodging and weaving her through the streets, but that didn’t stop her, she was determined to catch and reclaim that which I had stolen back in the Everfree Castle. I am not sure how I finally managed to lose her in the Everfree Forest, I am still fuzzy on the details how it happened. All I could really be certain of is that I was hiding in a tree all night, in panic-stricken horror of waiting for the moment Celestia would catch me, or would just burn down a section of the forest, just to be thorough. “But, didn’t the large sunny mark pony look kind of sad when she was trying to catch up to you?” the filly asked with a hint of hope in her words that I might be wrong, which oddly enough caused a slight lump in my throat. In a flash of light, a miniature Discord was now standing next to the candle with a black executioner's hood over his head as he was sharpening an axe on a wheel grinder. The mini Discord chuckled as he said “Well my dear, he did trick her into thinking that it was the bug pony from the Everfree that was behind the theft of the Elements of Harmony, and when she inevitably found out about I doubt that a simple ‘sorry for lying to you and disappear your magical mcguffin away’ would cut it.” Discord added while holding the axe right over a log “He was also trying to fly away before she could throw him in the dungeon once again… for his own safety of course.” His axe fell, and cleanly split the log in two pieces. The candle light continued to flicker as I gritted my teeth. Not even in a dark cellar could I get away from these two tiresome voices… It all had just started after I had kidnapped Swift Wing, aka Brass’s ally, as I tried to figure out what I should do next. Every single damn night, when I closed my eyes, the two of them would appear within my accursed dreamscape recapping the day’s events, and adding their own ‘two bits’ on what I should do next. Some of the advice was helpful (though I’ll never tell them) but they were the only two ‘people’ who had sticked with me after my flight from Canterlot. Heck, they are probably the only ones who would bother to speak to me… or at least without cursing me or accusing me after my escape. The alicorn filly was always trying (by nagging a lot) to appeal to my morals… and Discord trying to sharply remind me about the deadly reality of my situation. To make things worse… the two of them have started to pester me in the waking world too. “You don’t know that!” The filly shouted “Maybe the really tall lady was trying to catch up to him? She could have been worried about his safety or…” “Started preparing a smear campaign to ruin his ‘good’ name and help cut any lingering family ties she may have felt for him before the big reveal?” Discord quickly chimed in, while making another practice test swing with his axe. I cursed out loud as something banged across the floor. I turned around to see a small rat standing on the end of a barrel as a large golden amulet had fallen onto the flooring. I quickly snatched the precious artifact(?) off the floor and turned back to the table I was working on… only to see the box full of scrap metal was now missing a few pieces as a newspaper was now resting on my work place. Picking the the broadsheets with with my magic, I frowned as the front page showed a black and white copy of myself except this one had sneering smile and the classic long handle bar mustache reserved from villains who ties helpless maidens onto train tracks. The head article read “Extremely Nefariously Foul, Dastardly, Smelly and Ill Dressed villian wanted for impersonating an alicorn and a royal official, selling swampland, along with various acts of assassination, abstraction, coercion, corruption, conflagration, distortions, desertion, destruction, extortion, exploitation, fiction, grammertation, indoctrination, inebriation, obliteration, oblivation and any other general acts of villainy that we have yet to uncover and before this vicious endeavor of untold terror.” “Well that’s a mouth full.” Discord replied flippantly. That’s when I felt something press down on my head, as a vanilla coat and wisteria mane fell in front of my face.  A small alicorn filly was now leaning over my head as she pointed her hoof at the offending article and shouted in squeaky outrage “That’s not what they say!” A curse word escaped my lips causing a burst of green flames to consume the paper. The filly on top of my head gasped as I pulled her off my head and dropped her on a nearby box/chair before turning back to put out the flames on the burning newspaper. When the flames died down, it showed my blue and white self in my Canterlot disguise on the front page frowning as it read “The ‘Supposed’ alicorn Lockheart attacked Princess Celestia before escaping Canterlot! What is his connection between him and the dark creature that assaulted our dear princess? Is he related to the same attack on the train for several months ago or the previous sudden random monster attack that struck our fair capital just one day after his arrival?” In a flash of light, a miniature Discord appeared on the table lying back in a recliner chair wearing a fez along with a pipe in his mouth and with a small copy of a newspaper in his hands called ‘The Night Watch’. He removed the pipe from his mouth and looked inquisitively at the front page and the symbol of an eye underneath a house before nodding his head. “Oh yes, this is much better than the previous paper.” Discord  mock cheerfully replied “You know, It’s amazing how quickly these papers came out of the presses after you left Canterlot. I mean, the news didn’t even wait a day to see if you would come back to them or explain yourself before branding you as the villain behind it all.” “I’m sure there’s a good reason mister…” The filly meekly replied “Surely you can just go back and talk to Miss Celestia and leave this plan behind.” “I can’t…“ I hesitated for a moment as I had thought about the filly’s all so tempting offer, but before dismissing the idea I remembered the pressure of the constant and ever growing scrutiny I was under as everyone around me seemed to be just waiting for me to screw up the role/image of something that I never was “ besides, I have put a lot of time and effort in order to get this close.” I bitterly replied shifting my attention on more recent events for me. Discord grinned as the filly looked disheartened as I spoke (more to remind myself than their sake) of how I arrived at this point in my little investigation “After going through all the trouble of sifting through rumors and leads in tracking one of Brass’s allies down, I managed to get lucky enough to kidnap one of them. Then, I just hired another griffin to ‘rescue’ the one I abducted, before I followed their trail trying to figure out just where they were going.” I clenched one of the bullets in my fist as I continued “Brass found some griffin warlord who isn’t exactly quiet about his ‘dream’ to invade Equestria. From what I managed to gather, this entire nation is built around its sole ruler with no unanimously accepted heir to replace him… which doesn’t really matter since the other griffins are all scheming for the throne anyway.” “Then why stay?” Discord asked stroking his goatee “Why even bother staying here?” “Because Celestia isn’t here and I don’t know where else to go.” I half heartedly replied. “I just needed to find someplace to hide until things started to cool down. Celestia is trying to find out where Brass, is so naturally hiding with her would prevent Celestia from finding out where I am. If she tries to chase after me than she will notice Brass first and go after her instead, in the meanwhile I sneak away and hide someplace else.” “Really?” The filly and Discord replied skeptically, much to my annoyance. I shook my head as I muttered “Of course that’s my reason for hiding here. That, and the rest of the world is just as cruel. I mean Equestria wants to kill me. Griffin Stone is run by thieves, The other nations around Equestria are worse than the nation that wants to kill me.” “And what about the kingdom you’re currently hiding in?” Discord taunted me “None of them can find you. They didn’t even realize you had snuck in the city and they had yet to even notice you until yesterday’s little incident.” I felt the bile rise in my throat “Iron Claw? What do I have against this city?” my blood boiled as I thought why I hated this place “It’s like a bad parody of a medieval society. Whenever the king dies the nation tears itself apart as they fall back into civil war all the while waiting for the most vicious pretender to climb up to the top of the dog pile.” I let out a frustrated sigh before continuing  “So, all I need to do is take out their leader and the invasion will quickly fall apart. The rest is irrelevant!” Who cares about all the civilians... who are going to be trapped in the ensuing crossfire of yet another brutal civil war. It wouldn’t be my fault… I mean, this bloody cycle had apparently been around long before I got here and it looks like it will just stay the same even if I leave things alone. I took a deep breath, as I reassured myself “It’s just like the Everfree Forest. All I need to do is grab a gun… get a disguise… get the underlings to panic, run away, or fight amongst each other. Then, just pull the trigger at the boss’s face.” Another bullet clicked into place as I continued “I mean, his ‘lieutenants’ are already preparing for the next power struggle, so all they really need is a few suggestions and a slight push for them to tear their kingdom apart. You’d be surprised how effective a griffin disguise and a few glass diamonds are in securing and breaking alliances.” I felt a hoof press up my shoulder, causing me to turn my head and look at the alicorn filly, as she spoke in sorrow “You don’t have to do this, Mister Lock.” I chuckled in disbelief at the filly’s pleading words as I shook my head “Then what am I supposed to do? Sing him a song? Try a friendship speech on every sword wielding griffins while they try to tear each other apart?” The filly replied with a hopeful smile “Maybe you could get your friends to help you out and fix everything, mister.” In a flash light, a mini Discord now stood on the table over a large sheet of paper that wasn’t there before. It looked like an old RPG dungeon map with figured spread out all over the place, who looked like cartoon parodies of my so called ‘friends’ that I had spread across the table. Each one with a cheerful smile and trying to hide a rather almost comically large weapon right behind their back. Except for Valkyrie because she was a statue… Han Solo carbonite style to be precise. “Oh yes, you could get the amazing Valkyrie Statue to blend in with the other stone decorations!” Discord replied laughing out loud as I felt a sharp pain of guilt strike my heart. It was foolish because I couldn’t do anything for her back in Canterlot. I didn’t know any spells or go on any adventures that just happened to uncover some random magical artifact that could help her. All I could do back there in Canterlot was to pretend to be a prince until their latest test proved I wasn’t an alicorn. Until then, I was stuck in Canterlot Castle until Celestia found some sort of errand for me to do. Discord picked up the next figure as he played with it in his hand “Or maybe Maxwell the human who actually beat Gaichu. Of course, he might try to stab you since your theft was revealed.” “Ah yes the ‘lucky’ one who had his friend forgive him for his screw up. I’m sure a bartender would be of ‘great’ help right now.” I replied with a hint of annoyance. Discord smirked as he picked up the bat pony figure “Maybe that Midnight mare might place you in cuffs before throwing you in front of Celestia‘s throne, so that you could beg good old cranky sun butt for mercy?” I rolled my eyes “The one night guard who was ordered to protect me. The one pony who was sent by Celestia to watch over me and report my every actions. If it came to a choice between me or her then it would be obvious who the member of the Royal Guard would pick.” Discord held the last figure as he held the model of the unicorn right in front of my face “Of course, Remedy Cross could just try cutting the Element of Harmony out of you, since you are the scripted ‘villain’ pretending to be a hero. In fact is there anyone that you haven’t deceived? Anyone who you actually knows who you really are? Not the whole ‘you are not an alicorn’ bit, but who ‘Lockheart’ actually is?” I pushed Discord out of my sight as I focused on the riffle right in front of me. I must be going insane if I was actually paying more attention to hallucinations than focusing on a gun right in front of me. I need to finish up in Iron Claw so that I could go leave this place and find real people to talk to. With a deep breath I focused back on my job “All I have to do is just… take one bullet. Throw a few distractions and help give the griffins one final push so that they will turn on each other once the bell is rung signaling the king’s death.” I thought back to the times where I had impersonated some of the high ranking griffins… all the secret plans, deals, the countless bribes made with fools good or glass diamonds as I pointed them at the other houses or let them seek retribution at the clan they ‘allied’ with when they realized the bribes were worthless. Then of course were the rumors… how annoying it was to spread a word or a tale amongst the locals or trying to whisper a false secret to a maid, guard, or some griffin that had a noble’s ear. Then of course were the minor acts of mayhem… sprinkling a pinch of bug poison onto a few slabs of meat to make few griffins sick. Using the stolen gems and gold to buy sand, and pyrite to help replace some valuables… or use as bribes to unsuspecting griffins. “Going over some of my favorite highlights of this vacation?” Discord cheerfully replied as he waved pictures of my misdeeds about in the air. I closed my eyes as I muttered “Then all I have to do is escape. Preventing another nation from invading Equestria should make us even… I mean… it’s not even as if they have anyone that can use the Elements of Harmony... at the moment. It wouldn’t be wrong for me to just… stay away until the One Thousandth Summer Sunset Celebration would it?” “But won’t you feel really, really, really bad, mister?” The filly asked in disappointment. I nodded my head as I said “I’ll regret it… in fact I’m already regretting my decision right now,” I felt the unease in my heart because no matter how you cut it I was about to cause a lot of pain to god only knew how many people “but… that’s the thing. I’ll be able to regret my actions because I’ll still be alive to regret my actions. ” That makes sense, right!? I looked back at the amulet on the table “Besides… I already stole back a valuable magical amulet, so they will now need to alter their plans.” I tested the weight of my newly minted rifle “I rushed one of my plans, leaving a disaster of a distraction to cover my tracks, as I stole the stupid thing which somehow closed the portal and stopped more of Brass’s allies from walking through it. The griffins in this city are already on the lookout for anyone trying to leave. They won’t be trying to search the castle to see if I was waiting for the heat to die down.” Honestly, I felt a little bit annoyed thinking about it. They filled the courtyard with guards, while I was taking stock of the place, and then suddenly a portal opened up in the middle of the area, just as I saw Brass walked out of it. I saw a magical amulet that could literally send me to anywhere I wanted in Equestria. The possibility of just having it would be endless… and I had no idea how to use the bloody thing! It didn’t exactly come with a set of instructions! Now I couldn’t wonder if Brass had been foolish enough to leave some sort of user manual left in her bedroom, giving me yet another reason to go back to that wretched castle. Discord chuckled “So now you're off to storm the castle… but my I ‘suggest’ one thing?” I bit my lip as I didn’t really trust any of discord’s ‘advice’ ,after all, his last bargain was the reason I was forced to leave canterlot in the first place; the scar on my chest would attest to that… Then again… beggars can’t be choosers. “I’m listening.”   ******** The soft sound of claw against stone filled the hallway as I could hear the disgruntled mutterings of an irritated griffin. I spotted one of the hideaways I had left in the castle and dove inside it before the griffins entered the hallway. “Damn them! Curse those fools!” the griffin spat out in hatred “The best of Iron Claw and they can’t even catch a simple vagabond thief!” I walked around the to the peepholes that I had left as I took a look at the griffins. One dressed in fine garments and the other dressed in armor. I couldn’t get a good look at them, but I could easily recognize the rant of a noble from my times in Canterlot. The noble muttered in frustration “Now our great king has decided to search our holdings in his pursuit of this thief, who has undoubtedly, fled as far away from this capital as he could fly!” I bit my lip as I tried to remember which griffin was talking in the hallway. I could feel his outrage, his anger, but most of all his paranoia and fear. On paper all the griffins were united under a single banner, but in reality they were stuck in a constant power struggle. Each clan was sharpening their blades as they worked behind the scenes trying to whittle down their opposition before their next great big civil war. I reached out my magic to try to nurture the anger and paranoia as the griffin spat at the ground “It’s the fault of those outsiders meddling in business that doesn’t belong to them. Flooding the markets with their gems and having that so called nephew and the ground walkers, trying to take the throne out from under us!” A soft growl escaped his throat as he snapped at his guard “And the Ebon Hawks! Their in on it too! I’ve seen them paying their soldiers in gem instead of cold hard gold! Those filthy vultures are cooperating with the outsiders!” I tried not to chuckle as I watched it unfold. I cut my magic, as he was already consumed in his emotions as his fear was burnt away by his anger and paranoia, as soon greed started to seep in “King Harold is getting older… growing senile if he’s even accepting the dirt pony onto his council. What we need to do is teach Swift Wing a lesson, and the traitorous cohorts that align with him.” The griffin walked down the hallway now muttering his plans for revenge instead of being disgruntled about a simple house search while I was left with the satisfaction or watching the fruits of my labors start to unfold. All that time scheming, tricking, lying, bribing, and causing general mischief was starting to reach the boiling point. I think my only regret when things finally exploded… was that not all of the griffin nobles would be here. Canterlot may be stuck up, snooty, and general pains in the butt… yet I felt no ounce of pity for these griffin nobles as each one was just as bad if not worse than the other. Canterlot ponies may bicker, argue, or get into pointless duels, but they weren’t out to kill each other. More importantly, while they didn’t always get along with each other… they at least stood together as they tried to work for the betterment of Equestria (even if it was by ‘their own subjective standards’ which wasn’t always a good thing.) The griffins of Iron Claw, on the other hand actively conspired to murder each other, or ‘drill holes’ into the little ship they call Iron Claw having the entire nation go under… just as long as they get to be the first one to climb back up on the top of the ruined heap. ******** Mort The Equestrian unicorn was back in Iron Claw after their nearly disastrous escape from the jail cells in New Terra. As if trying to cause a jail break wasn’t bad enough there apparently was someone in Iron Claw trying to prevent them from breaking out of jail. Infact if they had acted just a few minutes sooner than they would have succeeded. Brass was naturally pissed as she shouted up a storm... and got just as much back at her. Swift had rushed to protect her as he thought it was an assassination attempt on her life. Mort didn’t know what to think during the chaos and their new griffin tag along… she didn’t seem to notice what went wrong. Still, Mort figured he should be grateful that he was sleeping in a soft bed instead of behind bars on a wooden bench they called a bed. Brass was trying to figure out who was responsible for this disaster… and Swift tried to explain how he was captured only to be ‘rescued’ by someone claiming to be following Brass’s orders. Brass didn’t know the supposed package delivery by the griffin named William and she certainly didn’t like the ‘suggestion’ that Luke was just going to leave Swift to be held hostage by whoever tried kidnapping him in the first place. Swift, of course, reminded her that if he wasn’t warned about Luke supposed betrayal, than he wouldn’t have tried contacting her in the first place which would have left her trapped in New Terra, if not  being carted away in chains before Celestia’s hooves. Mort glanced back at Brass and Swift Wing as the other two ‘griffins’ were not left in the room for this discussion. Brass had decided to keep it down to the so called founding members of her little group which just left Tracer out since he was in Canterlot. Swift ran a claw through his feathers “If you didn’t send the griffin then who did? Why did he help? Why was I even abducted?” Brass shook her head “Well going south didn’t help us find Gaichu since she wasn’t there. All that was waiting for us down there was a trap left by a buff griffin… and some freaky bird monster.” She groaned “Oh, and we faced jail time because Remedy and friends caught us before we were finished being kidnapped. We were just lucky enough to escape by using the portal exit.” Swift sighed “But this till doesn’t explain William… the griffin who ‘rescued’ me from the changelings.” Mort cleared his throat as he tried to add his two bits “Maybe William was told to help you from somepony impersonating Brass. I mean Luke does have a few changelings on his payroll. It wouldn’t be that difficult to have one of them pretend to be Brass to a griffin that hadn’t meet her before. It also wouldn’t be that hard for him to have you temporarily abducted either.” He wasn’t exactly sure if Luke was behind it… after all we would he try to alienate one of the few allies he had? Sure Mort couldn’t think of anypony else who could do it or had a reason to do so… and why did Brass not seem surprised at the possibility of Luke betraying them? Swift pinched the bridge of his nose “Okay, so assuming that someone wanted to impersonate Brass to have someone rescue me, after I was taken… then why would they even bother to ‘rescue’ me after kidnapping me?” “Because they were either going against the order of whoever decided to kidnap you by giving you a free knockout meal…” Brass pondered out loud “Or, maybe they wanted you to doubt William, and return to Iron Claw, instead of going back to Canterlot. That way, both of us would be away from Canterlot when Luke starts his little plan.” Mort stared at Brass in disbelief “You think this is all some sort of power play?” Swift kept shaking his head “That kind of seems… crazy. I mean why bother trying to have you get thrown in jail or…” Brass bit her lip “We were supposed to be kidnapped. We just got lucky when we were thrown in a jail we could escape from.” There was a hint of growing annoyance in her voice “If everything went according to ‘plan’ than I would be missing. Swift… you would be stuck in Iron Claw.” She pressed her hooves against the table as she bitterly spat out “We would have no way to communicate with our group back in Canterlot without relying on Luke’s allies to send messages for you. Luke would be calling the shots to our group… my group.” Swift grunted “I could just go back to Canterlot…” “And then one of Luke’s allies here would inform him of what you are doing. Then there would be a convenient tip off to Celestia’s forces having her position some of her troops to intercept where you or your uncle might go.” Brass countered “They just want to ensure that attention is brought away from Canterlot for Luke’s crazy a…” She snapped her mouth shut “For his crazy ‘plan’ to work.” Mort rubbed his head as he didn’t like thinking about how easy it would be for Luke’s group to betray them… and claim to have a ‘legitimate’ reason for doing so. Besides… only the ponies that saved Canterlot would get the pardon. If Brass and her friends weren’t in Canterlot during that moment… then it was just ‘a run of bad luck’ for them. Swift took a deep breath “So you think William is telling the truth?” Brass shrugged “I don’t know… but it’s safer to say that even if he is lying…he was picked because he was expendable and because he has no idea on what is actually going on.” Mort felt the gnawing feeling in his stomach as he replied “You think that something bad is going to happen in Iron Claw?” Brass stared at Mort with a hint of unease as she slowly replied “Nothing so… insidious… but I have a feeling that Luke’s little adventurers are going to just keep a close eye on us especially after my sudden arrival and the loss of the amulet.” She hissed in annoyance. Mort sighed as he rubbed his temples “Star Swirl’s magical amulet… the item Sanguine Point was after in Timberton. That stupid magical artifact that we betrayed that crazy psycho path and his unseen benefactor for.” He gritted his teeth “All that work… all those hours spent studying it as we could go just about anywhere in the blink of an eye.” the unicorn spoke with growing lamentation “And now some bumbling idiot in a suit of armor stole it right out from under us!” Mort felt like banging his head against the table in dismay at the moment “We don’t even know who to blame! Was it one of Harold’s bickering turkeys who stole it just because it looked shiny, or one of Luke’s lackeys who thought they deserved it more than a group of ‘thieves’ since they think they are more ‘righteous’ than we are!” Swift pinched the bridge of his beak as he tried to rationalize the situation “Look, we kept this secret close to our chest and they don’t have weeks trying to figure out how to make it work, so it still probably has to be in Iron Claw at least. I’m sure if my uncle has it, he will give it back to us if only because he wants us to use it for him.” Brass pressed her hoof against the table as she replied “Okay, so we don’t have Starswirl’s magic get away amulet anymore… the only question now is what we should do next. Luke doesn’t know about the few tricks we kept hidden from him, but we don’t have a quick method back to Canterlot anymore… and we all know that Luke’s group is going to be all too eager to help ‘assist’ in the search for Star Swirl’s stolen amulet after learning about how it helped me break out of jail.” Mort bit his lip as he knew what he was being asked “You want me to send a message back to Canterlot letting the rest of the group know that it’s time to move out?” Brass nodded her head “As discreetly is possible. Besides, our job is not to help ‘slay discord’ but to help clean up the mess afterwards… and if Luke’s plan does fail, then it’s best to pull back into Iron Claw until everything blows over.” “And if it doesn’t?” Swift asked with a pensive look. Brass chuckled “Then just suggest to your uncle for him to send some griffins to stand by the borders and remind him that Equestria expects to see his griffin in the air instead of underground. Hopefully Buddy will have finished the tunnels that leads to Equestria.” ******** Lockheart I checked the map once again as I made sure I was heading in the right way. “You don’t even know if they are even in that direction.” Discord’s voice mocked me I ignored him as I continued way towards Swift’s room. I needed to find where Brass was, and find out what she was planning. I was currently trudging through the castle hallways, hiding in plain sight of every griffin in one of the armored suits that the guards castle wore, walking along as if I was just a guard on a patrol route. Seeing that I already had a very meager magic reserve, I needed to use what little magic that I could gather on other things and, wasting any power trying to sustain a complex disguise spell would be an unnecessary drain for me. So, just wearing the regular 'uniform’ of a nondescript guard was far less trouble for me and made it just as easy for me to blend in if I am part of the scenery. Okay, maybe the armor was a ‘little bit’ bigger than I would have liked. My horn barely reached the ‘neck’ of the griffin helmet and I had to make some holes into the chest plate just so that I could see. My wings were just widden underneath the wing guards just as long as I didn’t spread them out and of course after readjusting the armor I could still fly. The important thing of course, was that most of the other griffins tried not to pick fights, or even bother a griffin that towered over them which worked just fine for me. I glanced at the walls, as each gem embedded into the wall marked a hiding spot/hallway that I had made. Old castles tended to have a few escape routes in them. I just enchanted a few gems with an ‘ignore me’ spell and one illusionary wall, add a few planks of wood just to be safe and nobody's the wiser. (Thank Celestia for that book on crystal enchantments) I felt a whiff of cheer in the air as I moved over to the gem marked wall and used my magic on it. Green flames raced across the stone mortar as the wall began to slide back. I couldn’t help but smirk as I squeezed myself through the opening I had made before closing it behind me. Light trickled into the small hidden cover, as I looked through one of the peepholes and spotted my prey. Two griffins were patrolling the hallways in ‘mostly’ good cheer. My horn glowed as I prepared myself to collect some of that good cheer and energy. One of the griffins stumbled as he muttered “Did you just feel a cold breeze?” The one beside him looked around the room not knowing what his companion was talking about “You sure you weren’t enjoying Hilda's celebration party too much?” The first griffin straightened himself up as he muttered “Well today isn’t going to be a basket of roses… Our ‘liege’ King Harold wants us to search for a crook. He had another round of changelings tests… oh and his beloved bride to be decided to visit.” The second griffin chuckled at his statement “You must be new, because every griffin here knows that the only lust he has is bloodlust. I’ve heard the rumors how some of his changeling tests are just an excuse to outright slaughter some of the griffins he perceives as too ‘weak’ for his armies.” Fear started to replace the good hearted cheer they had at the utterance of their ruler’s name. They glanced at the walls as they hadn’t seen me… but there was a general sense of unease and fear that was starting to build within them. The first griffin shook his head “Do you think the incident yesterday… that it was one of the griffin lords trying to usurp him?” The second one shivered “Impossible… I mean Harold gladly welcomes anyone to challenge him for the throne. I think the last griffin that tried had ten of his best bodyguards join him in on the fight.” The first one glanced at him in surprise “What happened?” “What do you think bloody happened?” The second one snapped back “He outright butchered them! Edrick told me he laughed as the king refused any assistance from his own bodyguards because he wanted to enjoy the fight. The foolish lord was left alive in the dungeons not because he tried to assassinate him… but because Harold was annoyed at the fact that they didn’t give him a ‘good fight’ so now he listens to the screams of agony the foolish lord gives each night before he goes to bed!” Fear soon replaced their joy as the first griffin whispered “You don’t think that’s what made him increase the patrols? He’s mad that he didn’t get to fight the griffin who tried to kill him!” The second griffin started to pick up his pace as I started to lose sight of him “Pick up the pace. I don’t want our liege to ‘test’ us because you drank too much last night!” The two griffins disappeared into the distance as I used my magic to open up the wall and slip back out into the hallway. The Castle was on high alert and the griffin king wanted his magical amulet back. I could do this… all I had to do was avoid catching their attention. “You could always let a few more parasprites ‘escape’ their notice near their food storages again.” Discord suggested “If that doesn’t strike your fancy you could go to their armory and seal the doors or replace the gems in their treasury with glass copies.” “Of course you could just walk about sealing shut every door in this castle. Maybe even rearrange a few walls to change the layout of the place.” He replied chuckling I turned down another hallway as the filly added “You could teach some of the griffins about friendship!” I grunted only for her to add “Maybe all they need is a friend instead of a big meany telling them what to do all the time.” “That would imply that they want to change the system they already have.” I quickly muttered “Going into a bloody civil war and taking everything by force seems a time honored tradition with these griffins.” So why not try and speed things up a little? ******** Celestia Celestia walked through the hallway of Canterlot Castle, as Quick Note continued reciting the day schedule and reports “The requisitioning of the trains for the Frozen North have been paid off, as this attempt to send aid to the beleaguered yaks… is being done without revealing your ‘direct’ assistance in this matter, Princess.” The yellow unicorn secretary looked up at Celestia with a mixture of drilled obedience and confusion “Your highness, wouldn’t it be better if you were openly endorsing the assistance towards the yaks?” “No Quick Note, the yaks are paranoid and a prideful nation…” Celestia took a deep breath before measuring her words carefully “And… and I didn’t have the same experience I have today, as I did back then. I… I left a very bad impression to them and the yaks still hold a grudge over it to this day.” Quick Note frowned “Pardon my disrespect your highness holding a grudge for generations seems kind of silly, princess.” “I’m just happy that they are asking for Equestria’s help. While they may have their reservations about me… they don’t have any grudges against anypony else in Equestria. It’s just a shame they are more focused on mercenaries and privateers that will be working for coin and gold.” Celestia replied softly. She took a deep breath as she remember going to Yakyakastan all those years ago shattering the floor of their palace with the stomping of her hooves. In her own arrogance at the time, she had demanded to see every record, artifact, or anything that could help explain what had happened to Luna… She wanted some sort of reason explaining the emergence of Nightmare Moon and why she had replaced her beloved sister Luna. She also remembered how she nearly plunged Equestria into war during that period of grief. Celestia shook her head trying to forget that lingering old memory as the Yaks had been a not too subtle reminder that she wasn’t perfect… and that she could also make mistakes. She just hoped that assistance sent their way will stop the changelings that are threatening the Yaks would help go a long way towards build some goodwill between their two nations and have the yaks stop with their isolation policy with Equestria. She wasn’t expecting them to be prancing around Canterlot singing songs with her little ponies… but hopefully they would be more open to a dialog and Celestia could show how much she had changed since their last bitter encounter. Maybe in a couple of years, they might acknowledge each other as neighbors, or join into the same cordial relationship Equestria had with Saddle Arabia. Quick Note cleared her throat “Besides that, there is your meeting with Maxwell to finish up any loose ends and you also have a meeting with Cloud Puff to go over the arrangements for any Breezes that were left behind in Equestria…” Celestia let herself feel a small moment of pride as she had taken a chance with Maxwell trying to bandage up the wounds of the past with the Yaks. He did a good job in being able to muster enough of the ‘adventurers for hire’ to gather a large enough group that wouldn’t draw too much attention to the members of Royal Guards that she had personally picked to be mixed in with them to get the lay of the land for her. She made a mental note to remember to try to find someway to thank Maxwell for his efforts, as it must not have been easy trying to deal with a weary yak and organizing everything on a reasonable time frame, especially when there was the yak breathing down on his neck that wanted to head back to help stop the changeling invasion as soon as possible. “How is ‘Great’ Klok Magiker Cloud Puff by the way?” Celestia asked out loud. Quick Note shrugged “She is currently left in one of the guest quarters after trying a… pixie stick.” Celestia chuckled as she could only imagine how the little breezie would act after finding a piece of candy that wasn’t bigger than her. Still, she should, hopefully, have come down from her sugar rush, when Celestia came to talk to her. Trudging along the immaculate marble hallways, everything was going well, which was the precise reason why at that moment she could hear the echoes of shouting that she soon recognized as being that of Midnight and Bristol yelling at each other from the room down the next hallway. Sure, the other ponies around her had yet to hear their voices… but it was giving Celestia an inkling of an idea on just how difficult her next problem on the docket was going to be like. The reports that she had been given from her guardsponies and diplomat about the situation in New Terra were inconsistent as some parts were conflicting with each other, or simply didn’t make any sense. If she had any hope of fixing this diplomatic blunder, than she needed some details cleared up. At first, things seemed to be going well even if it started out badly. Peter the dragon and mayor of the town had decided to personally escort them to New Terra to help deal with the Cursed Trader. Sure, they were attacked before they even reached the settlement and the mayor was wounded during the fight, but they seemed to have been harrowed as saviors by the settlers as they just so happened to catch four other dangerous criminals along the way, most notably Brass Balls, and help with dispelling the lingering curses within the residences. There weren’t any major problems until Regal Script came to town… What should have been a simple prisoner transfer had somehow lead to the cheerful settlement to kick them out before slamming its doors shut on Equestria. There were also conflicting reports between Regal Script’s team who had just arrived and Steel Halberd’s, who had been there for a couple of days. Celestia used her magic to open the doors as she heard Bristol shout back “Canterlot Tradition! As you should know...” Midnight didn’t let him finish as she shouted “Is that your excuse for everything you stuck up brat!” Seeing that the two bickering guards didn’t notice their ruler’s arrival yet, Quick Note cleared her throat as she spoke in a firm voice “Princess Celestia is here to see you.” Midnight and Bristol had both shut up as their royal guard training kicked in at Celestia’s presence, and they then both turned to the solar princess and bowed to her. Both ponies were a part of the Royal Guard with good records behind them. Both ponies had did a fine records in their duties. The problem was, of course, that the Solar and Lunar guard ponies were almost completely different in performing their respective tasks. Even then, the two ponies had clashing personalities, with the added bonus of possible regimental rivalries. Midnight Vixen was a good pony in the Royal Guard, and she was good at dealing with other ponies under her charge on a more personal level that most guard don’t usually do, making her easy to trust, and never shirked her duties. This made her a good body guard of course, that was why she picked her as Lockheart’s flight teacher and bodyguard in the first place… but she had shown great annoyance at having outside interference or meddling while performing her duties. Sergeant Bristol on the other hoof was, according to his background, apparently a capable commander. He was patriotic and was very proud in his duties. But, he didn’t had much in the way actual field experience yet, as he had operated mostly within Equestria during his career. This had also apparently been his first command that he had been given that rested outside of Equestria’s borders, and the pegasus was known for his fervent stance of Equestria’s importance. Celestia had hoped that this experience would have allowed him some actual frontier experience that would allow him to widen his world views. Celestia shook her head at the sight, as she could understand how the ponies would be frustrated, and would start lashing out at each other, especially after their mission to help a fledgling settlement had ended so badly. Just when she had finally started making headway in opening her borders with the yaks... Equestria now found its borders closed to another state. She calmed herself as she projected her usual all knowing princess mask, as she prepared to calm her ponies down and figure out just what went wrong. The solar princess looked down at her little ponies in her usual maternal and serene tone “Now what happened in New Terra that caused you a problem Sergeant Bristol?” The Pegasus guardspony straighten up in pride “Your highness, I have discovered that the settlement of New Terra have developed a new and highly dangerous magical weapon that could be a threat to Equestia’s security without any sort of regulation as it is being sold on the open market, with almost no concerns about who they are selling these weapons to, and the dire consequences they could bring because of their careless actions.” Celestia grew concerned as to what Sergeant Bristol’s had such dire concerns about, as she wondered what this ‘new’ weapon could possibly make her Guardspony so worried so much? Quick Note tapped her clip board interjected “To who precisely and what sort of action is it?” He frowned “They are selling weapons to anyone who has the bits to buy them! This could harm not only Equestria, but also harm any and all nearby nations!” Midnight rolled her eyes at Bristle’s descriptive tale of doom and gloom “They are making the something called guns…” She looked back at Celestia and blushed as she just realized that she may have spoken out of turn “Your highness… Steel Halberd explained to me what this weapon was and they are apparently work in a similar means to a crossbows expect they are more powerful, longer range, and apparently easier to use, though they do cost more bits to use and maintain. It uses an explosive called ‘gunpowder’ to propel a metal balls throw a long metal pipe.” Celestia thought back to the what she knew about these so called ‘guns’ as they didn’t seem to be that dangerous. Based on the descriptions, she knew that Lockheart had used a crude version of it in the Everfree Forest against the changeling which was certainly dangerous… but it didn’t kill the changeling outright. From Steel Halberd’s report these ‘guns’ did sound dangerous… but not exactly game changing in the art of battlefield tactics. The only real difference that she saw was that these weapons would be easier for ponies to use than bows and arrows which was the traditional ‘ranged’ weapon that griffins and diamond dogs seemed to favor. “Like a pot watcher would understand the dangers of an unregulated weapon.” Bristol muttered underneath his breath. Celestia turned her gaze upon him making him quickly stand straight as he spoke out loud “What I mean to say your highness, is that this Night Guard had not personally seen what targets these new arcane weapons were practiced on.” Midnight stomped her hoof on the ground “First of all, those rifles are not ‘magical’ weapons you polished ninny, and yes, I do know that they were shooting  armored dummies from some old royal guard surplus. I mean, it’s not like they have wild creatures with a hide as tough as a cragadile or a quarry eel to practice on, and it’s a lot easier testing weapons against targets that don’t strike back.” Bristol curled his lips as if he had sniffed spoiled milk as he spat back “Weapons that are build to punch through royal guard armor and sold with no regard as to who they sell those too are dangerous, no matter their intention or intended purposes Night Shift....” He raised a hoof into the air as he continued his rant “What if  these weapons falls into the hooves of a group of bandits and decided to attack caravans? Think of the innocent ponies they could hurt with those so called ‘guns’! To make matters worse our own soldiers are ill equipped to deal with these weapons, and Celestia forbid another nation purchasing a large stocks of those and starts a war with their neighbors in the belief that the enemy will be unable to defend against these fearsome new devices!” With those points razed, Celestia did admitted to herself that this issue could be cause for concerns for her guards and subjects, especially near the borders where the patrols are more spread out, and emboldened rogues armed with those weapons could try to take advantage of caravans. And, having her neighbors possibly started to acquire those weapons in bulk for their armies could become a concern later on too. Midnight, for her part, dug her hooves into the floor as she replied “And you just had to come in with your high horses demanding them to stop in accusing them and then threaten them!? We were doing just fine handling the situation until you idiots arrived.” She turned to face Bristle and glared at him “In less than one day you managed to destroy all the good will that we had built with them! Do you really think they would have listen to you on your word alone and not butt heads with them?” Bristol held his head up high indignation as he replied “Then it mustn’t have been that much if trying to impose some regulations is all it takes to break their so called ‘good’ will.” Celestia stopped her hoof making them both stop bickering once again. She knew that there were a few minor problems issues between those two branches of the guard… but she didn’t think it had grown bad enough for them to act like foals whining about who’s fault it was that the vase broke, instead of acting like full grown adults of the Equestrian Royal Guard! Still, she might have now had a better understanding on what might have strained the relations so much, if Bristol was so vocal about his concerns with those weapons. But somehow, this incident didn’t seem to warrant being kick out of New Terra just like that. There were details that she was missing here. Celestia cleared her throat wanting to clear a few facts on what her sergeant did, as she stared at them “Okay… Sergeant Bristol?” The pegasus snapped to attention as he waited for the Princess’s next questions. “Have the citizens of New Terra have refused any offer of aid from Equestria or any advice you had on how they could better defend their settlement?  Did they needed support to help calm the fears of the populace down while their mayor recovered from his wounds?” She wanted to know what beyond the issue of guns could have left such a bad impression to the settlement, and it was normally customary for the Royal Guard  to help make settlers or locals more self reliant, and to help promote some good PR to induce trust in them; Equestrian citizen or not. She couldn’t imagine that they would just spur any assistance from them on that issue alone. Bristol held a hoof up in the air as it looked like he was about to agree with her… until he paused as he lowered his hoof with dawning gaze. Celestia focused on the pegasus guard as she had recognized that look on countless foals from her magic school in the past. The one that told her that they might have overlooked an important detail. Celestia took a deep breath hoping that that she might be wrong on this “You did offer them assistance to help their militia in being more effective, right? You didn’t just try to out right banned those weapons without giving them a better alternative other than saying it would be ‘too dangerous’ to give everypony a gun in the settlement, right after they had just been attacked by a monster, right sergeant Bristol?” She quirked an eyebrow down at him, letting him know she wouldn’t tolerate any dodging or falsehood to the question from him. Bristol eyes widen in realization, as he obviously thought over his actions in a new light that might not painting him in the best of roles that that he couldn’t ignore, and then looked away from his princess as he replied “I needed to take care of the problem before it grew out of control, your highness.” He sheepishly confessed, in a roundabout way. Inwardly, Celestia couldn’t help but frown as she recognized the look on his face. She could infer from his answer that Bristol had probably thought New Terra was just going to be just some sort of backwater settlement with little of value. The pegasus sergeant must obviously have been shocked to see that those settlers had created a new weapon that Equestria didn’t possess and outstriped what it had. Then, being a minor noble, and a sergeant in the Equestrian Royal Guard who had mostly operated within Equestria’s borders… the pegasus had somehow forgotten that he couldn’t just simply order those settler ponies to do what he wanted them to do, and they certainly didn’t respond very well to his words at that. As for New Terra, it wasn’t a part of Equestria, as they lacked the comforting knowledge that the Royal Guard would provide protection to them in their time of need… something that Bristol clearly had forgotten when he was dealing with them. Celestia thought over if there could at least be a silver lining out of this faux pas before glancing over at the Night Guard bat pony “Private Midnight Vixen, what can you tell me about the the New Terra’s militia? Do you think they can manage to defend itself on their own properly?” Midnight nodded her head “The citizens of New Terra were just starting to organize a town militia together in the shortest amount of time possible Princess. I think they could defend themselves on their own, for the most part, from small threats like bandits easily enough; Larger ones too with the mayor Peter the dragon. I don’t think they would pose a threat to Equestria on their own,and they aren’t looking for any trouble with us.” Celestia was relieved to hear this, as she didn’t want to deal with this at the moment, and would like to address the issue of those guns later at a better occasion. The princess looked around the room as she noticed that some ponies were missing “Now, where are the others?” Midnight pointed over to the next room as she replied “Regal Script and Remedy Cross are waiting inside, your highness. They were supposed to give a separate report about what happened with the prisoners and at the council meeting.” Celestia glanced at the door “And what about Steel Halberd and Valkyrie?” Bristol seemed to huff in annoyance as he quickly replied “It is the duty of the senior commander of the expedition or mission to report their findings to the commanding officer or Princess. Steel Halberd and miss Valkyrie were not required to attend this meeting Princess.” Midnight shot the pegasus a glare as she coldly replied “And as the senior commander of the Night Guard.” The pegasus rolled his eyes as if she had said a bad joke “It was my duty to stay here and help submit my own report on the matter. Though, I can inform you that they had found out that miss Stardust had fallen ill… and they also seemed to have a few questions for her.” Celestia frowned “What questions… and what has Stardust fallen ill from?” “The questions are not my place to say, your highness.” Midnight said as a small blush covered her face “As for Miss Stardust… all I know is that she had fallen ill from something, but I did not have enough time to ask why.” Celestia had also made a mental note for later to check up on Stardust to see if she was okay, and send her a get well basket. In all her long years on the throne, she had often found herself extremely busy with her duties. As some time, she had trouble in keeping contact with her close friends and could simply be unaware when somepony she cares for falls ill. Which was always something that irked her when that happen; especially with what happened between her and... Nonetheless, she did wished that somepony had bothered to told her about it sooner. Celestia shook her head, as she had to worry about that question later. Right now, she had to focus on the current problem with New Terra. So far, all she could see was an argument about a weapon being sold. That couldn’t have been enough to cause a major incident so there had to be some other problem that had happened to make things much worse. Hopefully she could find what the problem was after talking to Remedy Cross and Regal Script. ******** Lockheart I continued to walk down the hallway as I pulled out a map from my disguise. Right now, I looked like every other griffin soldier covered from head to toe in armor. I held the map in front of my face as I tried to figure out which room Brass would be hiding in. I needed to know where she was and what she was planning. All I knew was that Harold was planning for war and there was a lot of talk of invading Equestria… mostly that Harold was getting annoyed at having to wait for his ‘nephew’ and the mare’s plan to come together. I turned down the hallway and spotted two griffins standing guard by one of the rooms. I quickly hid my map as I could feel myself starting to sweat in fear as I walked past the guards. They didn’t react as I was surprised I didn’t sense them. The only faint whiff of emotion I could get from them was of duty… mindless duty as they performed their tasks without any other thoughts other than their job. “You could always let a few more parasprites ‘escape’ their notice near their food storages again.” Discord suggested “If that doesn’t strike your fancy you could go to their armory and seal the doors or replace the gems in their treasury with glass copies.” “Of course you could just walk about sealing shut every door in this castle. Maybe even rearrange a few walls to change the layout of the place.” He replied chuckling. I turned down another hallway as the filly added “You could teach some of the griffins about friendship!” I grunted only for her to add “Maybe all they need is a friend instead of a big meany telling them what to do all the time.” “That would imply that they want to change the system they already have.” I quickly muttered “Going into a bloody civil war and taking everything by force is a time honored tradition with these griffins.” I opened the map as I tried to get my bearings “If you can show me just one griffin that isn’t like that from this city then maybe I’ll listen.” “You have a what!” a voice shouted out loud. I turned my head down the hallway and spotted one unknown large griffin, a brass colored pony and Swift Wing walking down the hallway. Of course I just had to taunt this crazy world. Now I had Swift Wing, Brass and some large body guard walking down the hallway towards me. I turned back around and hid behind the wall. I needed someplace to hide before they caught me. If they caught me than I would be in trouble. If they asked me any questions I would be screwed, because I don’t know anything. “Oh, hide in a statute!” The filly shouted. I looked around the room trying to find a statue until I realized that there wasn’t one in the room. I could hear the footsteps growing louder as Swift groaned “Not so loud.” I summoned my magic and tried my best to hide before they could see me. ******** Swift Wing Swift rubbed his head as Brass replied “Yes I have a cockatrice. It helped me deal with a few pesky ponies, and after the screw up in New Terra, I want it back.” They turned down the hallway only to see another empty hallway with a few decorations. The cow turned griffin named Matilda stared at the statue resting up against the wall “Is your uncle using it on some of the guards?” Swift turned to stare at the oddly placed statue as it stood at attention. If a somegriffin saw it from a distance, they would probably think it was an actual griffin guard. He ran a talon across the statue’s helmet for a moment before shaking his head. “Nope… just another decoration.” he muttered “Though frankly I’m surprised it doesn’t have a weapon in it’s talons like all the others.” Matilda sighed in boredom as Brass replied “Where is Harold keeping my cockatrice Swift?” “In his room.” Swift replied off talon. Matilda coughed “Why would he have a cockatrice in his room?” “Because it can rip a griffin’s throat out and turn someone to stone with but a stare.” Swift noticed their odd stares as he rolled his eyes “Naturally my uncle thought it would be the perfect pet to keep until you wanted it back.” Brass shook her head in frustration “Is there anything your uncle has that doesn’t count as a weapon?” Swift chuckled as he shook his head “Well, the weapon decorations on the walls… those are actual weapons.” clueing them to the answer to her question, earning a guffaw from Matilda, before Brass stormed out of the room . ******** Lockheart Shortly after Brass and her cronies left, I felt the alicorn filly flying above me banging her hooves like against my head as if it was a pot (Making it sound as if a gong was being stuck right next to my ears!) as the little brat whispered loudly “Pst. Mr Lock! Their gone!” I strained my senses as I tried to hear them in order to make sure they had left. I couldn’t feel any emotions, or hear any footsteps walking across the stone floor, causing me to sigh in relief. My horn glowed as I removed the layer of stone that had covered my armor and took a deep breath of fresh air. Brass was in the castle and none of them noticed that I was there… and Brass’s cockatrice was in the griffin king’s bedroom because he thought it would make a good pet , which that last part is completely insane. I know some rich people might keep a lion as a pet… no I’m getting off topic. I know where the bedroom is, but that was on the other end of the castle. Brass was walking down the hallway behind me. “Which way are you going to go?” Discord taunted me “Are you going back down the hallway to follow Brass or are you going to the king’s bedroom to pick up a little pet?” I looked to my left towards Brass as the filly replied “Valkyrie was hurt by the bird! Can’t it help her?” I looked over to my right as Discord replied “But of course who knows what Brass could be planning? Maybe she is planning a nasty surprise in Equestria or maybe she want to get to the kitchen to make a banana split?” I gritted my teeth as I tried to figure out what to do… before walking towards the room with the cockatrice. “Why are you going down here instead of chasing after Brass, isn’t she also a ninny pants?” The filly asked outloud. I shook my head as I muttered “Brass with a cockatrice is dangerous. If I get rid of the bird than she can’t randomly turn people to stone. If she wants the bird back than I need to steal it before she can get it back.” “Wouldn’t it be more prudent to follow Brass since she is the one in charge?” Discord taunted me as I continued down the hallway “Or is this because you don’t want to face the oh so terrible griffin king?” “Brass is the one setting the time table and she is a thief.” I quickly replied “She isn’t planning anything. Whoever she is working for is making up the plan. The griffins are just a distraction!” The filly giggled “Then what are you going to do with a cockatrice?” I frowned as I quickly replied “Send it to Canterlot.” Discord gasped “Oh so you plan to turn Princess Celestia to stone. I never knew you had it in you!” I picked up my pace as I quickly snapped back “Of course not!” “Then why are you sending it to Canterlot?” The filly replied with far too much cheer. I grumbled in annoyance as I firmly stated at them “Celestia won’t do anything dangerous with it and she will probably return it to the Everfree forest, right after using it to depetrify Valkyrie of course.” “Right…” Discord and the alicorn filly both said at the same time. I frowned “It’s not like I know any other places I can send a cockatrice to!” Discord appeared right infront of me as I frowned. This wasn’t tiny mocking Discord or standing on the side of my shoulder with an angel or devil costume. This was full sized Discord standing at the edge of the hallway with a Charlie Brown ‘doctor is in’ office. In a flash of light my armored disguise was not replaced with a charlie brown costume complete with yellow shirt with black zig zag design. Discord was currently resting his feet up on the the stand fiddling his claws. “Good grief, I don’t have enough time for these games.” I spat back Discord smirked as he picked up the cup and shook it a little revealing a nickel inside “I think your problem is that you don’t know what to decide. You keep saying woe is me, but that’s because you don’t actually want to choose.” He snapped his fingers revealing two rather colorful signs pointing at each end of the hallway. The sign on the left revealed a crown while the sign on the right revealed a picture of valkyrie when she wasn’t turned to stone. Discord leaned on the sign on the left.  “On the left is the throne room. Home to the fearsome griffin king in all his feathery glory. Take him out and you’ve ‘saved’ Equestria proving to everyone that you are a hero instead of a villain.” He batted the sign on the right with his tail making it spin. Once the sign stopped spinning it showed a picture of me as a statue “Take the path to the right and you are picking one to save one mare instead of an entire nation. I’ll just add that the mare in question isn’t into you… so no going out to save her because of true love or some other such nonsense.” I frowned “First of all I’m not interested in her. Secondly… all I know about cockatrice stuff is that you need the bird that cast the curse to break the curse. If I don’t grab it now than there’s a good chance I’m not going to find it in the near foreseeable future.” “So you're going to save her!” the filly shouted in joy with a swooning gesture. “No, I’m going to steal the cockatrice because that bird is a lot more harder to deal with than taking out a griffin on the throne!” I shouted at her “I can always go after Harold later.” Yes, that was my reasoning for not wanting to fight a griffin who specialized in fighting and tearing people’s limbs apart. I was running low on magic and I just needed to find someplace far away from Iron Claw to refill my magic. Then once I’m at full strength I would come back to try my luck against the griffin king. ******** Celestia Celestia walked over to the room and opened up the doors. The inside of the room had various pillows for ponies to sit upon and a rather nicely made table… but the mood was anything but pleasant as the two ponies in the room sat far away from each other as they resembled foals waiting for the principle to call them into her office, which ironically she was. Celestia walked over to the largest pillow in the room and sat upon it, as she watched the two closest ‘experts’ she had who would also know what happened in New Terra. Sure, there was a report sent to her… but she wanted to hear it directly for the pony’s mouth. Regal Script came from a fine noble lineage in Canterlot and while he may have been more concerned of raising his own rank… and could also be a bit pompous at times (which sadly was a common trait with nobleponies)... and prefered ‘courting’ far too many maidens for Celestia’s liking, but he was a good diplomat, which she could always over look and he had yet to fail her until now. His skills were of great help during the last negotiations between Saddle Arabia and Equestria and was a good stepping stone for him to elevate him in his career, at least it would have been if it wasn’t for this. Remedy Cross on the other hoof… it would be a lie to say that Celestia and the medic didn’t butt heads from time to time. Remedy Cross was a good field doctor, but she wasn’t a ‘ponies’ pony. The mare could be blunt, rude, had a set of ethics that Celestia felt was a little bit sketchy. But, she was ‘very’ good at what she does, she had more nerves than most seasoned guards had while under fire. Most of her commanders were willing to put up with her brazen attitude, if it meant she would do her absolute best to dispense medical needs, while castigate them for needing them in the first place. She was the most capable field doctor to deal with the medical or magical situation in New Terra and cure the ponies of their medical or magical malady… but only if Steel Halberd and the other ponies played peacekeeper to keep anypony from being offended by the mare’s lack of bedside manor. In fact, out of all the ponies sent with Remedy Cross she would have been the last pony Celestia would have trusted to handle a diplomatic situation. Celestia looked down at Regal Script as he was visibly nervous with his constant fiddling with his tie or cuffs, while Remedy, still having her usual irritated demeanor,  didn’t seemed worried at all. The solar pony watched him feeling concern for him as she noticed his unease as she wanted to let him the chance to explain himself freely over what happened, so she asked in the most casual manner as possible“So Regal Script, how was your stay in New Terra for you?” Regal took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself as he said “Well, your majesty, New Terra showed little care or respect to my status as a diplomat and, by extension, the whole of the Equestrian crown. When I arrived with my escort to that New Terra, I was only greeted by the mayor. ” Celestia glanced over to Remedy Cross to confirm the statement, who she could always rely on her in being honestly blunt with her words, who answered in a deadpan manner “He skipped the greeting with the mayor only to then ask to immediately interrogate Brass, and he has  somehow managed to alienated himself from the local prison guards of New Terra.” She looked back at Regal Script, who was in the middle of adjusting his tie “I...I was informed that I was meeting a dragon for a mayor, barely an hour prior … I was not informed of his sheer size, or that of those claws...“ he then took a big gulp ”or of those huge teeth.” The solar princess nodded her head in a show of understanding. His unpreparedness about the mayor’s stature could explain (not excuse) why he skipped out of his greeting shortly at his arrival. After all, that was a detail that she wasn’t aware about either up until now, and could be understandable, seeing that large dragons certainly have a ‘very’ intimidating presences all on their own, as most ponies would run for the hills at the sight of them. And, their fiery reputation doesn’t help them to make ponies be at ease with either. Still, it was indeed unusual, but not rare, for a dragon to make his or her home in a city. Of course, most of those dragons tended to be around about the size of a pony or a diamond dog. So, it would be understandable at how very unusual for such a large dragon to make their home in a city. Even more so, being trusted enough by the settlers to be their mayor… speaks volumes at how reasonable this Peter is compared to the rest of his kin. “Still, you were able to reschedule a meeting later on that day.” Celestia queried, as it was the most sensible thing to do after that faut pas. With a nervous look, Regal Script  shook his head “No your highness, I was not able to reschedule a meeting with him due to their paranoid actions and behaviour, before they exiled us from their backwater settlement.” Celestia felt like frowning. She knew things didn’t turn out alright, but she was hoping for an explanation… instead Regal Script seemed to have taken being kicked out of New Terra as a personal affront… which wouldn't be that far off the truth considering how everything ended. Remedy rolled her eyes “… oh and he accidently killed one of the prisoners.” Adding her own two bits to the conversation. On those words, Celestia winced as she was not sure if she had heard those words right. To her horror Regal Script as shouted in panic “That wasn’t what happened at all! I mean we don’t know if it was even sentient.” Thinking over his word, Celestia knew some of what happened to cause the diplomatic disaster , but ‘obviously’ Regal Script had skipped out on a ‘few’ important details in the letter she had sent him. A diplomat apparently killing a prisoner, or more likely causing their death through criminal negligence, was going to be hard to explain. Remedy rubbed her temples obvious irritation “That stickhead used some sort of old magic scroll on a being that was bound together by various intertwining dark spells matrix that was holding the creature together. He didn’t checking with me first for a medical assessment, if the spell might have adverse effect with the criminal.” Regal Script shook his head as he started to sweat “I was just givin that scroll,by you  your highness, and you ordered to use it to scan the bird creature that was captured in New Terra; I was told that it was absolutely  harmless to anypony… I mean any creature. Beside that, for all we know that could have been a wild animal! It didn’t say anything when I entered the room. Sure they ‘claimed’ that only they can hear it, but the creature made no obvious actions or signs of intelligence the entire time...” Celestia grimaced at the reminder that she was the one who gave him the scroll in the first place, and that the unicorn stallion mistook her reassurance of the time she gave it to him as iron clad truth, and didn’t consider that he would have needed an expert opinion before casting. Still, it irked her to know that she was indirectly responsible for the unknown creatures death. Back to the matter at hoof, Celestia closed her eyes as she tried to set aside her slight gilt as she said “What happened to it?” “It died.” Remedy Cross replied in deadpan once again, much to the stallion’s annoyance. Celestia took a deep breath “What I mean is, How did it die?” Regal coughed as he tried to loosen his tie a little “Well, it died… and the scroll suffered some sort of magical backlash, causing it to be destroyed as well.” Celestia cursed herself on that, as losing this precious relic was a great lost her, because of the ancient magic simply couldn’t be replicated as it was made even before Celestia’s time. Moving on again, the solar princess looked down at the unicorn noble “How did it die?” The unicorn gulped and closed his eyes as he meekly replied “It exploded.” Silence filled the room as Celestia rose an eyebrow to that statement while Remedy growled out loud “What did you say?” “It. Blew. Up.” Regal Script slowly emphasised “It was like a bunch of griffins stuffed a roast turkey full of firecrackers and set it off.” Celestia flinched as he continued slowly increasing the volume of his voice “Then, things went spiraled downard rather quickly after that. They started throwing accusations, threats… if it wasn’t for the donkey, things could have escalated to violence very rapidly.” He sighed as he hung his head “I was told to go back to the room they had set aside for me… looking back I should have tried arguing to speaking to the mayor to explain my side instead of waiting for them to cool off.” Celestia glanced at Remedy Cross as the mare replied “To be fair, even knowing about her condition… I wouldn’t have expected her to suddenly blow up. Maybe get health issues or have trouble breathing as it was stuck between two if not more forms… we might have been able to fix if we treated it immediately afterward… but spontaneous avian combustion was not on the list. Whatever dark magic that was holding it together in that form was very unstable for whatever scan that scroll was supposed to do.” Remedy shook her head “The rest of the citizens altered by this ‘curse’ were changed from one species to another… not a mixture or combination of species making Regal Script’s… blunder a unique situation.” Regal Script eagerly agreeing with her nodded his head “You see! There was no way to know that disaster could have happen. I was just following orders as it wasn’t my fault that it failed. Either the scroll was faulty due to age as some of the ink that might have worn out, or maybe it was something in that creature’s curse that interacted badly with the scroll that made it fall apart!” He pointedly added to avoid any blame his way. The solar princess could see how that would make the citizens of New Terra worked up into a panic. If the ‘bird’ was in fact a sentient being, than Regal Script had accidently murdered it. If the ‘bird’ was just a wild beast… then everypony else saw an unknown spell blow the creature up and the pony who cast the spell wanted to try it on a sentient being. Celestia took a deep breath as she now knew that one would be a tough one to explain to the citizens of New Terra and how it would have turned into a diplomatic disaster if the same situation happened anywhere else. Still, if it was just one disaster… Celestia could see his regret as she said “What did you say at the subsequent jailbreak?” Regal Script bit his lip “Turns out waiting for things to cool down didn’t work out as well as I thought. A few hours after, I was escorted away to my room their was a jailbreak, and some of them started throwing accusations of us in intentionally instigating it. I, of course, vehemently denied any responsibility of this and made sure that if their was any fault to be had over what happened in their facilities then it should be theirs. The ones who were throwing accusations and threats at me were blaming us for the jailbreak because it just so happened right after we arrived.” That part Celestia knew about the jailbreak, and wondered how Brass and her acolyte could have managed to escape and evade capture in the middle of a desert. Remedy shook her head “What about the one about Princess Celestia, wanting to turn everypony into a ‘happy’ little pony; what was that about?” Regal Script rolled his eyes “During Brass’s interrogation, she claimed that Princess Celestia wanted to make all the ponies in New Terra happy, it just doesn’t make sense on why they would be upset about it.” Celestia stared at him as she tried to figure out how that translated into… “What were her exact words Regal Script?” Celestia spoke in a calm voice. Regal Script took a deep breath as he recited “She claimed that Princess Celestia was trying to turn all the ponies in New Terra into happy little ponies and she did not want to be a happy little pony.” Celestia tried not to flinch as she thought about her meeting with Maxwell. Remedy Cross facehoofed as she groaned out loud “And you said yes?” Regal Script rubbed his temples “I fail to see how Celestia wanting to make them happy is a problem?” Remedy Cross rose her voice “How about the fact that some of the ponies in New Terra were actually an entirely different species? I had even treated a hippogriff turned into a ‘sea pony’ for Celestia’s sake! Now during this whole fear of being transformed into a different creature overnight… you just went out as the representative of Canterlot and claimed that Celestia wasn’t going to treat anypony who was turned into a pony!” Celestia didn’t say anything as what Remedy Cross said did sound feasible… but she couldn’t help but remember her discussion with Maxwell about how some words seemed to have been censored or have their meaning changed and how most of the adventures have yet to realize it for some odd reason. Somehow, the solar Princess didn’t feel as if Brass’s comment would have generated the same amount of ire… if what Regal Script had heard was actually what she had said. Either the meaning of what she said was different from what he had expected… or he had heard a censored version while everypony else head a different speech. Frustratingly, She wished she knew what parts of Maxwell’s speech had been censored just to give her an idea of what Brass had actually said to the ponies of New Terra. For all she knew, it could have been a simple as transforming every beings into ponies… or declaring that Princess Celestia was planning to incinerate their entire town with a solar flare. Maybe not that last part, but there was no telling what Brass had actually said to everypony else in New Terra. Regal Script shook his head as he started to raise his voice “There was nothing wrong with the interrogation with Brass, besides the fact she may be clinically insane. I mean… Didn’t she try to attack you when she first saw you?”  He said to the unicorn medic. Remedy nodded her head in satisfaction“She did. She also swore enough to somehow summon a thundercloud to zap her.” “That’s my point… There should have been no reason at all for them to trust the words of a convicted criminal, instead of trusting a representative of Equestria.” Regal Script replied as he tried to stay calm from his previous agitation. “What else did she say during the interrogation?” Celestia asked as she tried to figure out what else could have gone wrong in this disaster. Regal Script was silent for a few seconds as he tried to loosen his tie “Okay, she may have freaked out and threatened to rip my head off, if I used a reformation spell on her…” Celestia felt a pit in her stomach as she further remembered the rest of her talk with Maxwell, and thought in disbelief at the sheer coincidence of the seemingly unrelated events, somehow made sense together. There was a slight misunderstood belief amongst the Adventures that the reformation spell was closer to mind control rather than a simple conscious reminder. If they were anywhere near as paranoid of frightened as Maxwell was at the mere suggestion of a reformation spell… That would have been the biggest disaster that Celestia could have possibly imagined before she found out about the rest of his disasters during this trip. Remedy was now resting her head in her hooves, as she bluntly stated “How badly did she react?” The canterlot unicorn stared at her in confusion “It was just an offer of a reformation spell over jail.” “How badly did she or the other ponies in the room react Regal Script?” Celestia queried as it started to make sense in her mind. Seeing her intense gaze on him turning his confusion into despair. “Well… she sort of… threatened to rip my head off.” Regal Script softly replied as he began to look back at his actions not as a unicorn who had been unjustly wronged… but of a unicorn who had unwittingly kept making blunder after blunder, compounding the political disaster. To make things even worse he was played by the very pony he was sent to retrieve! Regal Script continued, “She had also… implied that... the guardspony named Valkyrie was never turned to stone. That Princess Celestia had altered her mind in some way.” Celestia did her best to stay calm and pretend that she wasn’t bothered by this news. She did her best not to think about just how badly Brass managed to twist Regal Scripts words around, before he had accidently murdered one of the prisoners, and had inadvertently implied that Equestria had an established practice of brainwashing its citizens into being obedient mind slaves. Celestia looked down at him in pity “What happened when you finally spoke to the mayor?” He wiped his forehead with his hoof as he couldn’t make eye contact with her “It was shortly after the prison break. In the heat of the accusation, I let my anger get the best of me as I pointed the blame back at them. It was their faulty jail that was responsible for the escape of Brass after all.” He was now looking firmly at the floor as his hung his head in shame “That dragon came about around that time and he wasn’t in the mood for talking. His eyes were practically glowing red as smoke drifted out of his nostrils. His claws… his claws had dug into the pavement tearing it apart as he looked down at us… and his teeth… I swear to you there were sparks of fire flickering by them. He wasn’t in the mood to talk… he wanted to roast us alive and he would have if not for the crowd. So instead, he told us to leave.” The solar princess was already making a list on the needed things she needed to apologize for or help clarify before things got worse. It was bad… but hopefully the amount of good Equestria had did for New Terra would help convince them of that this was one big horrible misunderstanding. The only thing disaster left was how Brass escaped… and sadly Celestia already had a good idea how that had been accomplished. Now she just had to prepare a letter and hope she could get New Terra to understand what happened… and clear up any misunderstandings that might have occurred during Regal Script’s short visit. Still, somepony would have to take the fall for this disaster. She glanced at Regal Script as she knew under normal circumstances this wouldn’t have happened, but the sad truth of the matter was that he was in charge of the mission and he was the one who caused the biggest incident to occur. Sadly, this would spell the end of Regal Script’s political career. New Terra wouldn’t accept any terms if the pony behind this disaster didn’t suffer any punishment. Celestia couldn’t help but realize that she was partially responsible for his misfortune due to the scroll she had given him. With Regal Script’s diplomat career at an end, his family would probably try to distance themselves from this disaster  of an embarrassment for them. Regal Script’s family would most likely follow the Canterlot tradition of sending their unwanted family members to look after a small town or remote settlement as far away from Canterlot as they could find. The disgraced pony would be left in charge of running the backwater town as they would be left or die in obscurity. If he was ‘very very’ lucky then hopefully one of his heirs would be welcomed back to Canterlot, if the town or settlement had prospered well enough to warrant Canterlot’s attention, or has managed to great acts of valor during a crises. But sadly, those chances are few and far in between. ******** Lockheart I leaned against the wall as I slowly began to mutter to myself. It shouldn’t be this hard really… I knew where Harold’s bedroom was. I know how to get there, but the most frustrating part of it all was how I couldn’t get to the accursed room! Entering from a window was pointless due to my poor skills in flight… and the dozen or so soldiers that would see me outside. Two hallways had been blocked off as the griffin soldiers are searching the area. Last thing I need is to catch the attention of the griffin inquisition squad. Quite honestly I had started to give up with plan A of walking into the room as I was now looking to see if I could get underneath or above the room… then I could just make a hole in the ceiling/floor to sneak inside. “Maybe you should get a cardboard box?” Discord mocked me “Of course, you could alway try shooting out the lights or crawling through the air ducts.” I hissed in frustration “There are no…” I shook my head “No… just ignore the voices and focus.” The alicorn filly walked to the end of the hallway as she said “Oh you could try asking for help!” “This isn’t a mlp story where I’ll conveniently come across the younger brother of the villain who just so happens to want to stop his evil older brother.” I firmly stated. “But look over there! It’s that funny pony from the castle!” The alicorn filly spoke in joy. I walked over to the edge of the hallway as Discord chastised me “Oh so you’ll listen to her crazy ideas, but not mine? You wound me Locky.” I looked around the hallway fully preparing to mark this area as another dead end, only to see Boulder Dash and a few non-Iron Claw style armored griffins standing guard beside him. What was he doing here? Why was he even in Iron Claw? The alicorn filly jumped up and down as she started to shout “Mister Boulder, Mister Boulder! Over…” I quickly grabbed the little filly and pulled her behind the wall with one of my gauntlets, firmly placed over her mouth. She squirmed and grunted in frustration, as she was obviously upset at my attempt to… Wait... Why was I trying to prevent a figment of my imagination from shouting? Why was I trying to ‘hide her’ when I was the only person who could see her? “How will it look to the other griffins when they see you cuddling up with a big ball of air?” Discord replied in a mocking tone “Also, why is Boulder Dash… loyal pony of Equestria and hand picked to help teach/test your ability with earth pony magic has decided to come all the way out here?” I felt a shiver down my spine as he added “Why is he being brought to a guest room instead of the dungeon? I mean it’s not like he’s planning to betray Equestria, because humanity weakened the entire nation, making it a prime target to one warbird and one human turned pony, who wants to play queen... Is it?” Okay, new plan. I needed to get close and find out what was going on. Brass in the castle was bad enough… but a possible traitor? That was even worse! “Maybe he doesn’t know that the mean griffin is planning something bad?” The alicorn filly replied. “Maybe Iron Claw just has a decent 401K plan or maybe the nation of Iron Claw has another fake alicorn that Celestia is interested in and she sent Boulder Dash to pick him up.” Discord replied in a sarcastic tone “What is important is that they are down there and you have a hallway leading down there.” I looked back at the wall I was leaning against as I noticed the gem resting inside it. I used my magic against the wall and surely enough a hidden passageway was revealed. I pushed the filly into the hidden passageway sealing the exit behind me as I tried to catch up. The filly ran ahead of me as she shouted in joy “Oh, you could give Mister Boulder the amulet and the bird. Then he could take them to Miss Celestia!” “Or he could be a spy… maybe an opportunist who would think that it would be better to sell him out to Harold instead of trying to help Equestria.” Discord countered “Maybe he just wants to avoid Harold trying to invade his town so he’s offering Equestria on a silver platter?” I walked down the hallway as I tried to focus on the voices. I tried to ignore the fact that Equestria was messing with me… I make a plan to run away and now suddenly Brass is inside the Castle. I make a plan to steal a cursed animal, only for Boulder Dash to suddenly arrive making me question what the hell was going on! Am I going to run into Nightmare Moon in the next few hours, or is Boulder Dash going to turn out to be a rather vivid hallucination, like the alicorn Princess filly and the chaotic serpent of chaos? I heard the voices start to become more clear as I slowed down. Were these the words of a naive friend, a distrustful traitor, or possibly a fool who had yet to realize the danger he was in or maybe just the actions of a powerful and ‘gifted’ individual who didn’t care just as long as it didn’t interfere with his life. “Lord Harold is pleased that you were able to meet with him in such short notice.” one of the griffin guards replied “Though I am surprised that he sent his daughter instead of coming himself.” “I’m hope King Harold does not take offense.” A female voice replied “You asked to speak to Thunder Peek, and I was the closest one to Iron Claw. It is an honor to visit your kingdom.” “The view from the top of the mountain was absolutely splendid.” Boulder Dash replied in posh fascination. “Yes… many a griffin have to stand up here and look over the mountain side.” The male griffin replied, quirking an eyebrow to the fancy dressed Earth Pony as if he was some lost tourist. I frowned as the two griffins continued to trade meaningless words and empty gestures with each other, while Boulder Dash commented on the scenery or decorations, seemingly oblivious to where of all places he was, and acted as if he was part of a guided tour of the castle. I had spent enough time in Canterlot to recognize it. The male griffin was just trying to find whatever he could needle out  of her to report to Harold before their talks… while the female one was doing her best to probe him to find out about whatever was being kept secret from her. I picked up my pace as I heard Boulder Dash’s bride say “So why has Iron Claw asked for an alliance with Thunder Peek?” The griffin chuckled as if it was a good hearty joke “Why it’s because we’ve stayed apart for far too long. All the other races stand unified behind their country and yet despite our skill, abilities, and prowess the griffin nations always stand apart.” Suddenly I could taste a hit of unease as the griffin continued “Besides in these troubling times is it not best for us to put aside our differences and stand together, or at least tolerate one another?” Thud I looked up at the end of the tunnel, as I saw the wall start to shake. There was another thud, as dust was kicked up into the air. I could feel the hint of excitement and joy, as the end of the tunnel started to have a trickle of light leak through it. I stared up at I worked my magic creating an opening in the ceiling. It was a bit of a rush job, but being in a hidden tunnel that was about to be forcibly opened up wasn’t a good idea. Green flames danced across the ceiling, as I escaped through the freshly made hole and sealed it up behind me. A part of me cursed my ill luck, as I couldn’t hear them anymore. In fact, it would be hard enough trying to get back down there, without running into someone, or trying to figure out where they were going. “Last chance.” Discord openly mocked me “You know they are going to speak to Harold. You also know that you are just a short trot away from the bedroom.” I moved towards the bedchambers. I needed to steal the cockatrice, keep the stolen magical amulet on me, and now send a message to Celestia warning her about Boulder Dash’s possible allegiance to Iron Claw. Was there anything else that I was missing? A griffin wearing what looked like a french maid dress came out of one of the rooms and stared at me. She was a bit bigger than most of the griffins around here, but she didn’t have a weapon, and I was dressed up like one of the guards in the castle. “What are you doing here?” I harshly demanded, using the guard armor to cow her. I could sense a bit of fear emanating from her as she replied “I was just cleaning up the bedrooms.” “Which clan are you from?” I asked in a stern voice. “House Twin Blades.” She replied as I could feel her unease. I didn’t want to talk to her anylonger than needed. She didn’t want to stay as she had probably did something illegal. I looked at the room she was in and then at her. It wasn’t the griffin king’s bedroom so I didn’t really care. All that matter was getting her out of here before she could start questioning why I was there. “I suggest you leave before one of the other guards see you.” I sternly warned her. The maid made a slight bow before heading off. I picked up my pace as I just had to avoid being caught, and more importantly, I had to pay attention to my surroundings so that I’m not suddenly caught by surprise anymore. ******** I walked into Harold’s room as searched for the last item I was looking for. I could hear the soft clucks of the cockatrice that was in the very large birdcage. I stared at the creature in disbelief as it had one of those hawk or bird blinders placed over its head. The cockatrice walked about the cage trying to push its head against the bars attempting to remove the cowl placed over it. I shook my head at the stroke of good luck since it couldn’t turn me to stone right away… and there wasn’t any sort of elaborate defense that I had to figure out or overcome. Just a simple metal cage with a small metal hook to keep the cage door shut. Now I just had to figure out how I was going to take the cockatrice. I mean just grabbing it didn’t seem that complicated of a plan… but the bird was big… like iguana size big. Just trying to carry it outside this place would be difficult, especially if it freaked out. I took a deep breath, as I walked over to the cage only to see the cockatrice turn around, spread out it’s wings out wide, and hissed in my direction. I’ll admit, it was a little bit terrifying, as I saw the hind claws on the cockatrice dig into the straw matted floor as the tail thrashed about, making it all too clear that this bird was not happy. Okay, could these things understand ponies talking to them or could they just understand what Fluttershy said to them because of her special talent? I mean some animals were semi-sentient… smart enough to follow orders with ease, but still just animals. “It seems kind of silly to be trying to fillynap a creature that could turn you to stone.” Discord replied in an ‘innocent’ tone. I shook my head as I rustled around in my armor trying to find something to use… maybe a good burlap sack or something. “In fact, it seems like it would be easier just ignoring it and trying to focus on bribing a noble or sealing up the doors to the treasure room.” The Discord cheerfully replied “Are you sure it’s not because you’re feeling guilty?” I frowned “What exactly do I have to feel guilty about?” The filly shouted “ Why Miss Valkyrie of course! ” I shook my head “You're just drawing conjecture.” “I drawing a what?” the filly asked back in confusion “I don’t have any crayons!” “I’m sure if you had any crayons, you would be doodling on the walls right now.” Discord added in his mocking tone. I gritted my teeth “I said Con-jec-ture.” I took a deep breath “Besides the last thing I need is for Brass to suddenly pull out a cockatrice in the middle of a fight.” The Cockatrice hissed as the creature's tail bashed against the walls, as I snapped back “Shut up!” “You should apologize to Peanut Butter.” The filly replied “She doesn’t know what you’re trying to do.” I watched the entrance of the cage as I muttered “What does peanut butter have to do with this?” Discord chuckled as he said 0“When most colts or fillies get a pet, it is common for them to give them a nickname.” “We are not getting a pet!” I hissed in frustration “We are just getting it out of Iron Claw!” The creature paused for a moment as I walked over to the cage “Just calm down for a moment as I’m going to let you out.” The cockatrice continued to hiss in my direction, as it was preparing to peck my hand, the moment it got close to the cage door “I’m going to remove that cowl… and so help me if you try to turn me to stone I’ll keep a death grip on your little neck, so that you will be strangled to death by a statue!” The mutant snake-bird stepped back, as it continued hissing as I shouted “I just want to dump you back in the Everfree Forest!” At that the Cockatrice stopped hissing as it cocked its head at me in an odd angle. I felt silly having to explain myself to this bird… but if talking to the bird ensured that it didn’t try clawing my eyes out then I wouldn’t complain. “You should also ask her if she can help out Valkyrie.” The filly loudly whispered “That’s why you’re in here.” I bit my lip as I muttered “I already told you. I’m here for the bird to prevent Brass from doing something with it.” “But you could have left Iron Claw a really, really, really, long time ago!” She shouted “But nope! You just walked about trying to find this room instead of sending Celestia a letter letting her know about the big meanies in this place.” “No that was because I lacked evidence. Even if I did tell her, there wouldn’t be any reasons for her to believe it.” I quickly muttered back “Besides, I was looking for way to undermine their authority while finding a place to hide from Celestia.” “Sure…” she replied in a slightly mocking tone… not mocking like discord, but more childish mocking… like when the CMC learned a secret and couldn’t help, but me smug or try to ‘hint’ about them knowing about it. In short, it was the type of tone only a child could pull off. I did my best to ignore her as I my hoof and transformed it into a griffin claw. I still had a suit of armor to protect me from it’s fangs and talons. I had a pair of shaded goggles to help try to prevent me from being petrified, but if the mutant chicken manages to do that, than my would be a statue would still be strangling it to death. “Where in the world did you ever get that idea?” Discord asked out loud. I grunted “Well they had some guy using a shield to defeat Medusa. That’s kind of similar to this, isn’t it?.” “Oh yes, because we all know hollywood prides itself on checking its facts.” Discord sarcastically replied. “I thought Mister Perseus mirrored shield just turned Medusa to stone because her gaze stared back at her; it didn’t say anything about actually protecting him from her gaze?” The filly say unsurely, with an adorable naive gesture. “No he just walked up to the fiend and stabbed her in her sleep.” Discord dourly replied “History tends to be rather boring with the CGI fight scenes to spicen it up. The monster slowly took a few steps forward as it stared at me… unsure if it was safe to walk out of it’s cage. I took a few steps back as the cowl was still over the creature’s eyes and I didn’t want to try pulling it out of a small cage even if I had some armor to help protect me from it’s claws. The Cockatrice walked out of the cage sniffing the air like a dog. I slowly prepared the rope needed to tie it up with my magic, only for the bird to screech as it charged after me. I screamed as I dropped the rope and tried grab it with my magic only for the monster bird to knock off my helmet and claw it’s way into my armor. I closed my eyes and fired randomly trying to keep it from clawing my eyes out only for the dam thing to crawl it’s way down onto my back. I stumbled about trying to get the damn thing out of my armor only to feel it’s claws dig into the point in between my shoulder/wing blades as it hissed. Then to my surprise it curled up in that spot entrenching itself as it stopped hissing and clawing my back. I tried to look back to see what was going on… or try to remove it from my back. Every time I tried to tilt it off my back the dam creature dug its claws in and hissed as it refused to budge. I stopped my hoof and it hissed back. I growled back saying “Fine… but if you bite me or try to tear open a hole in my back than we can see how Kentucky Fried Cockatrice tastes!” There was a soft hiss as the Cockatrice shifted about on my back making itself comfortable. “Awww… Peanut Butter is purring!” The filly replied in gleeful cheer. I took a deep breath and walked forward trying to be mindful of my new unwanted houseguest resting inside my armor or to be more precise… on my back. The stupid beast didn’t seem to care too much as I turned around and started walking towards the door. How was I going to get out of Iron Claw? “You’re going to leave!?” Discord shouted in a mixture of surprise/annoyance “But we’ve barely just gotten started!” “Of course he’s going to leave.” the filly replied “He’s got Peanut Butter. He doesn’t have any other reason to stay in this creepy place.” I shook my head “No it’s too hot right now. I stole the magic Mcguffin that Brass had and she want’s it back. I stole her cockatrice…” I felt the creature’s claw dig into my back as it hissed “I’m trying to rescue the cockatrice from her.” The wretched beast seemed to huff in satisfaction as it calmed down. I opened up the door and looked both ways trying to ensure that nobody was about to appear and capture me. I walked into the hallway as I muttered “I helped bribe/trick a few nobles, helped stir up a little bit of trouble while planting the seeds of doubt amongst them. I’ve done enough.” “You found a magic amulet and a cockitrice that your sending back to Canterlot.” The filly added “You’re just a good pony who’s worried about his friends and doesn’t want to admit it.” “I poisoned the food supply that hadn’t been devoured by Parasprites with insecticide.” I harshly whispered back “I replaced a part of this castle’s treasury with costume jewelry and cheap knock offs while using the real stuff to bribe other nobles or stuffed then inside a rainy day chest to sell somewhere else.” “You’re trying to go back to Canterlot to give them a magical amulet and Peanut Butter!” She shouted back. I gritted my teeth as I whispered “It’s near the Everfree forest and it’s one of the few places I know about. I mean, I don’t know anything about the other nations and I know I can atleast trust Celestia not to do anything dangerous with the magical amulet.” Boom The harsh sound of an explosion rang out as the floor under me shook slightly. I looked around in a panic as guards went racing down the hallway. I could hear the Cockatrice caw in confusion as we weren’t anywhere near the source of the explosion… then the bell rang. The bell… the one that signaled the king was dead… except it just happened right after the explosion. It was as if somebody hadn’t even bothered waiting to confirm that the king was dead before they started ringing the bell. I mean, sure, I had thought about ringing the stupid bell, once just to try to have the city fall into chaos but… I face palmed as I realized one vital flaw in my plan. I had expected the nobles or ‘lesser houses’ to follow my plan exactly how I envisioned it or to continue to slowly doubting one another until it came to blows. I had expected Brass’s allies to wait… or try to confirm Brass’s story. I didn’t expect hostilities to break out the very next day Brass had came in this stupid city! A roar rang out through the hallway as the griffin king shouted “Who did this!” I groaned “They didn’t even kill the king?” I took a deep breath and loaded my rifle… oh great… now I had to try to figure out a way to kill a griffin who slaughtered his way to the throne just when someone had already tried to kill him. Maybe I can just walk out the… I heard the sounds of talons screeching against the floor. There stood a rather large griffin with a few burnt feathers… covered in armor… and wielding two axes as an aura of bloodlust radiated from him. It was the type of bloodlust that you could practically taste when you saw him as he threw an axe near my head. I did the only sensible thing I could think of at that moment, I ran... ******** Harold Harold laughed as he chased after the assailant. Sure someone had just tried to kill him, but he couldn’t let something as little as a minor explosive deter him. Of course, he was thankful for that maid warning him about some odd griffin near the royal wing who was seen walking away and trying to avoid being stopped. So naturally, this unknown griffin must have been the assassin that had tried to kill him! After all if the griffin truly was innocent he wouldn’t have tried to flee. All of his guards knew that Harold could have easily struck them with that axe instead of missing them on purpose. He grinned as he could feel his heartbeat racing as the thrill of the hunt started to consume him once again. The masked griffin turned and muttered “Come on!” The griffin king laughed as he retrieved the axe strapped to his back not realizing that the griffin he was chasing didn’t mean it as a challenge as fear filled his voice. All that mattered was that this griffin had challenged him as he even told Harold to come after him. It would be simply insulting and unsporting to simply let the guard take him out if this foe went through all this trouble of issuing a challenge. Harold held his axe with his beak as he raced on all fours catching up to the unknown foe far faster than his opponent had expected. Most griffins preferred a simple tactics of either flying or running. But, Harold on the other claw, preferred using his wings to help give himself a quick boost as he leapt forward and used his talon to grasp his axe once again. “Challenge accepted!” He yelled with glee, only to catch the griffin looked back and noticing that he was about to be attacked. ******** Lockheart I ran as I could hear the psychotic griffin laugh as he chased after me! How the flying fuck did he find me! I was nowhere near the throne room to warrant the crazy bastard to chase after me… or did he decide that a near death experience warranted grabbing the cockatrice so he could turn his would be assailant to stone and show his beaten and battered body to his adoring/terrified populace? To my horror, I could feel a rush of joy mixed with his bloodlust… the griffin king apparently was one of those people who just loved to fight. There was no reason or purpose it, other than just the thrill of the main… and impromptu to killing. I turned the corner and spotted half a dozen griffins who were just in the middle of their own fight, just abruptly pause as they turned to face me “Oh, come on!” “Challenge accepted!” The nut job behind me yelled as six other heavily armored griffins panicked and jumped out of the way. A spear struck the ground beside my face, as I turned my head only to see the mad griffin king racing forward on all four limbs. He only paused just long enough to kick one of the guards down to the ground as he tore the spear from the griffin’s grasp. The mad king smiled as he prepared to throw the next spear. “Oh quick time events.” Discord replied in annoyance “I hate quick time events. It’s like a cut scene you can’t enjoy or skip because you have to spot the pesky button they want you to press.” A flashing arrow pointed to my left as I ran to the right. A spear landed just right where I would have been if I had went left. Discord made a ‘tisk’ sound as he continued “You never know if those arrows are pointing towards where you need to dodge or where the attack is coming from, unless you use a retry or looking it up online.” “Not helping!” I hissed through my mouth as I jumped to the left dogging an axe. The alicorn filly shouted “Look out! He’s got his special! Hit the brakes!” I didn’t have any time to react as something tackled me to the ground. I felt something plant their feet on my back as I saw a glint of metal to my right. I heard Harold’s triumphant laughter as his shadow on the wall showed he was getting ready to hack my head off. I pulled myself deeper into the griffin armor as what looked like the pointy end of a pick axe smashed into where my neck was supposed to have been, if this armor actually fit me, as the griffin king’s grip loosened as he didn’t expect the complete lack of resistance from my helmet… since my head wasn’t inside it. I swore as I heard the spidery like voice come out of my mouth, as a burst of green flames turned the stone floor into a almost Play-doh like substance, throwing the griffin king’s balance off even more, allowing me to turn about throwing him off me. ******** Harold Harold landed on the back of his rival, as he brought his full weight. and slammed his axe against the armored neck. Without even thinking, he had prepared for the axe blade to catch as he moved to pull his axe back, getting ready to choke his rival, or slowly tear the armor around his opponent’s neck off before cutting into his throat. Instead of a grunt of pain or a spray of blood, he saw the helmet fly across the hallway. The lack of blood caught him by surprise as the armored suit suddenly slipped out of his grasp. Harold landed on the ground and chuckled, as he saw the eyes of something in the armor’s chest causing him to laugh “And here I thought the two sizes part was a joke!” The assailant blinked as he tried to prepare to defend himself with the sword. Harold grinned as he joked about “You know the one… It’s always a size too large or a size too small… lucky for you it was the former instead of the latter!” ******** Lockheart The griffin king stood in front of me taunting while I struggled to pull out a weapon, only to grab hold of my gun, as the makeshift bayonet on it pointed outside of my armor. The griffin king grinned as he planted one foot on the helmet that had been impaled by his latest weapon, as he pulled his weapon free from it. He chuckled as he joked about to himself “You know the joke… There are only two sizes of armor. One size too large or one size too small… lucky for you it was the former instead of the latter!” “What’s he doing?” The filly whispered loudly. Discord chuckled “The griffin is monologuing. The ‘not an alicorn’ is breaking a tradition.” “Surviving is a valid strategy.” I harshly whispered back as I took aim with my gun. With the crack of the rifle the griffin king moved to the side, but not before the weapon went off. Being shot is different from being stabbed by a sword, especially when you aren’t expecting it. He dropped his axe, as I took a few steps and prepared for the next shot. Instead of running back, the mad griffin pulled a sword out from behind his shoulders, and closed the distance between us far faster than I could react. His metal blade struck my rifle knocking it aside as it hit the back of the armor. After nearly being run through by a sword, I cursed out loud as a burst of green flames shot out of my mouth causing the griffin to jump back in terror as his sword transformed before his eyes. Not waiting to take any chances, he threw the blade back at me as the green flames finished consuming the blade and transformed it into a novelty sized candy cane that smashed against my left shoulder, as bits and pieces fell onto the floor. Apparently, seeing his weapon turn into a candy cane didn’t stop, or even cause him to pause for a second, as he already spring towards me, before I could recover and grabbed hold of my armor. With one talon clenched onto my neck guard, I pulled out my dagger and plunged it towards the area of exposed flesh I could see. I was swiftly rewarded with a shoulder ram to my side, and a punch to my armor’s stomach area, as he somehow had flipped me over his body, and tossed my onto my back. He grunted in pain, as he pulled the dagger out of his shoulder, as I grabbed a bottle of ale from my pouches. He rushed for me getting ready to plunge the dagger where he thought my head would have been and I spewed forth the alcohol, and used my magic to ignite it. The griffin king managed to dodged the attack as he ran past me, while I struggled to get back up. Staggering myself up, as I couldn’t run away from him. Still, maybe I could beat him? I watched him toss aside part of his more flammable leather parts of his armor only to see that underneath his ‘kingly vest’ was a small armory of weapons hanging on his armor. He had even more weapons on his body that I did… and I’m the one trying to kill him! “Oh, come on! Why do you even have that many weapons?” The griffin king just pointed a talon at me “To be fair…” Fuck it! Grenade time! I took out my makeshift explosive in a can and hurled it at him. The griffin immediately unclipped an axe from his side and swung it like a ping pong paddle, knocking the grenade out the window with ease, as it exploded outside the castle. The moment he stumbled a little, surprised by the explosion, was the moment I decided to turn tail and run. I could hear him shout in frustration as he tried to catch up “To be fair, you also have quite the arsenal yourself too!” “Didn’t you say you were going to stop him and stop the big bad birdy from doing big bad things?” Discord openly mocked me. “Quick Mister Lock, find Mister Boulder Dash, and see if he can help you!” The filly shouted trying to help I grabbed the next two improvised grenades and chucked them behind my head not caring what they were just as long as they slowed down that crazy griffin. I could hear him start coughing, I think I had stunned him for just a moment… “Magic door to your left!” The filly shouted I turned to the left and slowed down my steps, as I saw a lot of armed griffins currently in the middle of fighting one another. I used my magic to summon up an illusion of my griffin helmet, and tried to reach the door only for all the griffins to freeze in mid sword swing, as they stared at me in horror as they must have seen my headless armor, before I had summoned my fake helmet; at least until I heard a noise behind me. I slowly turned my head around only to see another griffin, that had been trying to stab the downed an other griffin holding the head of a statue with a sword. Behind those two, was of course a bloodshot teary eyes griffin, and that was growling as he was clenching his teeth. ******** Herald Tears ran down his face, as he searched the room only to see a dozen other guards staring at him oddly. Harold felt his feathers starting to puff out, as his body started to hug the ground. His eyes focused on the griffins who had been apparently been in a middle of a fight of their own stopped in mid-fight as they stared in befuddlement at their (still living) king in confusion, or possibly dread as they slowly tried to pretend everything was normal, pating on each other’s back, and trading small jokes. Plenty of armored griffins who looked exactly the same as his current opponent was hiding within the crowd trying to blend in. A small smile appeared on his face as every griffin stepped back against the walls with their weapons by their side in ‘display’ mode. The griffin king cleared his throat as he watched for any odd movements as he berated them “Why were you all fighting?” No griffin spoke as the silence continued while he walked “Was it because the bell was rung? Did you ‘perhaps’ thought that something happened to me and now was the time to start fighting each other because I was supposedly killed?” To his displeasure, all the guards in the room started shaking in their armor. If there was just a single guard shaking in fear than it would be simple enough to pick him out as the imposter. He could hear quite a few shivering forms trapped within their armor, as he could tell these were not just illusions, or some sort of trick being played on his mind. His guards had shown that they were incompetent enough now, to think that the ringing of a bell was enough to descend into chaos. In fact he was frustrated that they didn’t even have the decency to confirm he was dead before breaking out into a brawl. They should be better than this! He trained them to be better than this! His eyes scanned the guards as spoke once again “Remove your helmets.” He ordered with no room to question Every griffin in the room promptly dropped their weapons and removed their helmets not wanting to risk their lord’s wrath. Harold tried not to roll his eyes as he wished some of them had kept a talon on their blades if only to be ready to cut down or block off the intruder he was after. To his surprise all of the guards had head on their shoulders instead of hiding in their chest. Harold rubbed his side as he took a moment to glance at his own armor. The left pauldron was damaged as there was a fairly large dent in it. The bullet wasn’t strong enough to punch through either due to the poor quality of the pistol or his new armor that he had made after hearing about the penetration power of a riffle was a lot better than he had expected. The important thing was that his opponent was still hiding and trying to get some distance in-between them, before taking another shot at him. Harold scratched his chin as he slowly walked past his guards trying to spot which one of the heads were fake. He never had a suit of armor try to kill him so it obviously must have been enchanted. The easiest test he could do would be to simply hold his axe up and have it brush up against each griffin’s head to see which head didn’t actually exist. He felt a something brush up against his mind for a moment as he glanced at the odd decoration up on the wall. Harold had to admit he was a simple griffin. He preferred solid sturdy walls built to withstand sieges than sparkling floors to show off to guests. His statues had actual weapons that his guards could use if needed, instead of paintings or flower arrangements adorning his walls. That is why he found the oddly placed gem embedded into the wall rather strange. Any idiot that had decided to decorate his walls with gems should have given it to the forge masters to buy new equipment, or possibly trade for soldiers, or help build relations with the diamond dogs that Brass seemed to have following her. His beak curled up into a smile as he felt the nagging thought trying to nudge him into a certain direction. It was a pesky thing mostly because it wouldn’t have been the first time some rival lord had tried getting a third rate mage or unicorn to cast a spell to distract him. He could also see the unnatural light that seemed to glimmer around the gem on the wall, which helped narrow things down by quite a bit. “You tricky little…” Harold began to say only for the sound of a rifle to go off. His back screamed in pain as every griffin suddenly turned their heads in shock as the assailant. The griffin king had to admit that he didn’t expect his prey to shoot him in the back the first chance he got! His guards quickly moved to grab their weapons as Harold turned around only to see a griffin sized hole in the floor suddenly sealing itself up. ******** Lockheart His eyes scanned the room as all the other griffins started lining up against the walls, pretending that they hadn’t been trying to kill each other just a few seconds ago. I fell into place because I knew I couldn’t make it to my hidden doorway without Harold or one of the other griffins tackling me to the ground. The griffin king cleared his throat as he watched for any odd movements “Why were you all fighting?” No one spoke as the uncomfortable silence continued, as I tried to catch my breath. I needed to retrieve my gun from my armor. Harold had knocked it out of my magic grip, making me lose sight of it during the fight. I felt my own heart beat begin to quicken as the griffin king’s gaze passed over us. He was angry, hateful, and disappointed at his soldiers attempt to celebrate the supposed passing of their king. The griffin spoke in a clear tone like a chastising teacher lecturing in front of a class “Was it because the bell was rung? Did you think that something happened to me and now was the time to start fighting because I was killed?” I could feel his displeasure just, as the guards started shaking in their armor. The look of annoyance on his face grew, as I couldn’t tell if it was from the fear his guards were displaying, as they then realized their king was still alive… or if he thought that I had already escaped. All I had to do was just stand still and don’t bring any attention to my… “Remove your helmets.” The feathered bastard ordered out loud. Every griffin in the room promptly dropped their weapons and removed their helmets, not wanting to risk their lord’s wrath. I did the same, as I struggled trying to keep an illusionary griffin head and an illusionary helmet in my hands. The griffin king frowned, as he obviously wasn’t expecting this. I clenched my teeth as I heard the cockatrice start to wake up again. The moment the bird started clucking, Harold would know which one us was fake. I had to act soon! There was a loud gulp as all the griffins tried not to stare at him. I could even hear one faintly whisper “Please don’t be a changeling test. Please don’t be a changeling test.” The psychotic griffin rubbed his side as he took a moment to glance at his own armor. His left pauldron was damaged as there was a fairly sizable dent in it. The bullet hadn’t been strong enough to punch through, which meant I needed to focus on the chest. I felt myself start to sweat, as the feathered fiend scratched his chin taking his sweet time. I felt the gun barrel brush up aside my as a soft cluck came down near my feet. I found my rifle, but I didn’t know if the bird would keep quiet… Harold turned to look at the gem embedded in the wall, as I made a silent curse in the back of my mind. “He found the exit.” Discord openly mocked “He found out where you’ve been hiding your exits.” “Maybe he doesn’t know? Maybe he’s just trying to figure out where you ran to?” the filly replied “Take the shot.” Discord whispered “Just look at him. He’s like a duck at a carnival game. Hit the bulls eye and win a prize.” I pointed the barrel of the gun at his back. “Don’t do anything.” The filly whispered “If he doesn’t spot you then he can’t find you!” He looked up at the gem that hung right above the doorway to one of my hiding spots. “He finds the doorways and you’ll never have a second chance.” Discord replied “You won’t have the chance of surprise the next time you encounter him.”[i/] “Go out the window.” The filly countered “If you fly out the window he’ll lose track of you.” “Until he turned his head and sees that you flew outside. Then it’s just a whistle call and a dog pile before he catches you.” Discord countered The griffin king lifted up his claw towards the gem “You tricky little…” The gun went off as the griffin king screamed in pain. The other griffins turned towards me, as I stomped the ground summoning my magic. In a burst of green flames, the floor gave away dropping me off a floor below me as I summoned my magic to close the hole. ******** “You’ve got to be kidding me!” He screamed in fury as he jumped out the nearest window and flew one floor down. His back felt like he had been hit by a sledge hammer as he was pretty sure one of those bullets hit flesh. Still, he was lucky enough that his opponent wasn’t able to line up a shot at his head… though apparently, the carrion bird had a gun much bigger than a pistol in his suit of armor! The headless griffin armor ran down the hallway as it spotted Harold moving to intercept. He grabbed one of the nearby guards, and tried to use him as a shield. But, the griffin king didn’t care as he charged swinging his axe into the captured guard, knocking him aside before pulled out a one handed hammer and slamming it against the assailant’s armor, making it ring like a gong. Harold moved out of the way, as a metal spike shot out nearly stabbing him, only to see a hole crack open in the side of the armor. To his surprise he saw that a pony was residing within the armor. The strange black pony had a predatory look to it, with the pony’s slitted eyes and fangs twisted into a scowl, along with an unnatural jagged horn with an eerie green aura… that was currently had a gun at point blank to this face. No longer caring about being stabbed by the seemingly random spikes that came out of the pony’s armor the griffin king kicked the armor knocking off the pony’s aim before the weapon took off his head. Harold couldn’t help but laugh as he threw his axe near the opening, causing the pony to shout “Why won’t you die already!” “Because I’m having too much fun!” the griffin king shouted, as he snatched a nearby bottle of booze off the ground and threw his hammer at the pony’s armor, as he looked for a torch. The pony quickly snatched the hand axe with the suit’s talons before sealing up the hole. He didn’t know how the pony was able to pull of his tricks, but that was a question for later. “Torch now!” Harold shouted as the guards in the room, who were terrified at their king’s survival, quickly forked over the light torch they had used as an improvised weapon. The pony was preparing for his next attack as, Harold quickly poured some of the alcohol into his mouth as it had just the right amount of pure alcohol, instead of one of those lighter drinks that couldn’t get a griffin drunk. As soon as the pony aimed the open part of his suit at Harold, he spewed the alcohol at his torch giving the pony a taste of his own medicine. The pony quickly backed away, right in time for Harold to hurl the bottle at the suit of armor, drenching it in flammable liquid as he charged with his torch. He laughed, getting ready to set the pony’s armor ablaze, only to miss as the pony managed to open another hole into the floor, escaping one floor down. This time, Harold didn’t waste a moment as he dove straight through the hole, before his opponent could seal it back up. A mad grin was plastered over his face, as he never thought his own castle would be used to his opponent’s advantage, as he shouted in frustration “Stop running and fight me!” He scanned the room, trying to figure out where his foe had run off to. His opponent wasn’t allowed to run away just when he was having so much fun! ******** Lockheart I summoned what was left of my magical strength, fueled by my own desperation to live, as I used my magic to create a hole in the floor along with an illusion of myself jumped straight through it. A mad grin was plastered over his face, as he jumped down the hole shouting “Stop running and fight me!” I tried to catch my breath as I heard the mad griffin rampaging down stairs trying to find me. How long would it take him to realize that he was chasing an illusion down the hole? What would it take to kill the crazy griffin! I felt the glow of my horn die down as I mentally cursed myself for not having him try to chase an illusion sooner. Yes, I was trying to escape and I was more focused on trying to keep him away from me than trying to distract him. My body ached, not so much from the rush of adrenaline dying down, (I was too frightened to calm down) but because of the amount of magic I had burned through trying to escape. Okay, deep breaths… I looked outside the window, and saw a courtyard full of griffins trying to kill each other. There was fear, chaos, confusion, and thrill… if not ambition as each ‘faction’ was going out of their way to cut down their competition. I lept out the window and glided down to the courtyard as I expected to go unnoticed in the scene of chaos. As soon as I landed on the courtyard, an axe landed at my feet as two griffins were stuck in a death brawl trying to claw each other’s eyes out. I stepped around them, only for an arrow to embedded itself in my armor, as a griffin shouted “House Thornwood shall prevail!” What looked like the end of a pickaxe tore into my armor as I shouted in panic. With a quick burst of my magic, I slipped out of my armor with the cockatrice squawking madly on my back. Instead of back off or shouting back in surprise, the griffin tackled me to the ground as a mad grin was plastered all over his face. “Your one of the usurper's servants aren’t you!” The griffin shouted as he raised his axe “We deserve the crown more than some…” I unleashed a magic blast right underneath the griffin’s chin as he fell off me. The cockatrice hissed as it crawled out from underneath my chest plate. “Wait, don’t!” I shouted at the lizard bird, only for it to turn around and leap at me. Instead of claws tearing through my flesh, I felt feathers and scales rubbing against my coat as my jacket started to strangle me. I felt the cockatrice’s head pop up from inside my coat as it screeched. I stared down at it in disbelief “What?” The bird looked at me with the cowl still covering it’s eyes, before it pecked me and screeched once again as a dead griffin fell in front of me. His killer stared at me in confusion for just a moment before turning his bloodlust at me. Without a second thought, I used my magic to tear away the cockatrice’s cowl as the griffin was about to stab me with his pike, only to fall to the ground as a statue. “Peanut Butter saved you!” The filly shouted. An arrow stuck near my feet, as the cockatrice buried itself deeper into my jacket again. I picked up my rifle with my magic, and started running straight to the castle gates. Most of the griffins were focused on killing each other, but any that stood in front of me didn’t stand too well against a rifle up close. I started pulling the trigger, as the griffins shouted in pain usually clenching their side, or their leg as I didn’t care where the bullets hit them, just as long as I could escape the griffin’s grasp. My heart continued to race, as my legs began to feel the burn from my attempt to escape from Harold. I nearly laughed, once I made it through the gates, as I could hear them slam shut behind me. Of course, that’s when I saw the civil war spilling out into the streets as armored griffins started attacking each other. There were some that were more focused on moving the civilians to the houses and protecting them, but there were a few griffins just simply stealing the weapons and armor off the dead and using it to join the brawl. I ran behind one of the houses as I muttered to myself “What happened? Who tried to kill Harold? Who ran the bell? Who was the idiot who failed to kill Harold!” An arrow stuck the side of the house, as a griffin shouted “Death to the ground walkers!” I turned to face the griffin, who was charging at me with the pitchfork, and unleashed a round from my rifle causing him to fall down to the ground. Behind him, were two more griffins were having trouble trying to reload their crossbows. The cockatrice screeched fighting the other two griffins as one of them shouted “Devil bird!” The cockatrice fell onto the ground, as I took a quick look at my jacket. It was beaten up, torn, and I had just noticed the various cuts and scrapes on my body. I closed my eyes as the cockatrice clawed it’s way up my back to settle itself between my shoulder blades. Apparently it didn’t want to stay in Iron Claw anymore than I did. I ran through the streets, trying to avoid as much of the chaos as possible, until I reached the edge of the town. Just like Equestria, the city lacked any ramparts, since all of the griffins could simply fly over the them, which left me a very long drop to the bottom of the mountain. I took a few steps back, while the cockatrice dug itself deeper in between my shoulder blades, as I ran off the edge of the town opening up my wings. I felt the wind underneath my wings as I tried to fly down as fast as I could... until I felt a pain scream throughout my left wing, as an arrow had struck it. I felt the cockatrice’s tail wrapped around my stomach, as it’s claws dug into my back in terror. I tried to use my magic to protect myself… The Necromancy Remedy taught me could mend flesh even if it hurt like hell as I braced myself for the pain only for the spell to fail. I tried pull out the arrow that was stuck in my wing with my magic, and when that failed I tried causing a bright light to blind everyone, but instead all that came out was a screaming headache as my horn didn’t even flicker. My magic reserves had just hint their limits. I closed my eyes and tried to stabilize my flight despite the growing pain in my body, only for another arrow to strike my left leg. I could feel the blood dripping from my body as it grew heavier with each passing second, as the upcoming line of trees grew closer with each passing second. I tried to steady my wings in a vain attempt to soften my landing, while the cockatrice that had a death grip on my waist seemed to loosen its grip on my back. I turned my head to see that the little lizard bird had passed out, just as something tore through the branches and smashed into my side. My body couldn’t take it anymore, as I felt myself start to pass out from the pain. The griffin pinning me to the ground spoke in a rough voice “What should we do with him?” Another griffin landed on the forest ground, far more gracefully than I did, as I heard Boulder Dash’s voice speak up “Get a cowl for the cockatrice, before it wakes up.” I saw the earth pony look at me as he shook his head “This may complicate a few things.” “Or it may be just what we were looking for love.” Replied a female griffin.